Nehemiah 8:7,8

And Jeshua, and Bani, etc.,.. caused the people to understand.

These persons, Levites, and probably the heads of Levitical families, are named again in chapter 9:4, 5, as discharging very important duties. Upon this occasion it is not entirely clear how they "made the people to understand." It is probable that the throng of people was so large that the voice of Ezra could not reach the entire assembly, and that they were stationed separately among the people, and took up and repeated what he read, with. word of explanation where it was needed to make the meaning clear. This seems to be the meaning of verse 8. They might each have been supplied with copies, and the thirteen Levites, properly distributed, could "read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading."