Nehemiah 12:27-30

The people were happy because they had built the walls of Jerusalem again. They knew that God had helped them. And they wanted to thank God for his help. The job of the *Levites was to lead the people when they praised God. So the people gathered the *Levites and the singers from all the other towns. And the *Levites sang and they thanked God with musical instruments. The priests carried out a special ceremony. Probably they made *sacrifices on behalf of themselves and the other people. By means of these *sacrifices, they asked God to forgive their *sins. Then they would be ready to serve God.

v31 Then I took the leaders of *Judah onto the top of the wall. I also appointed two large groups to thank God. One group went to the right and they walked along the wall to the Rubbish Gate. v32 Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of *Judah followed them. v33 Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, v34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah and Jeremiah followed too. v35 Some of the sons of the priests followed with *trumpets. One of the priests was Zechariah. He was the son of Jonathan and was the grandson of Shemaiah. (Shemaiah was the son of Mattaniah and was the grandson of Michaiah. Michaiah was the son of Zaccur and was a *descendant of Asaph.) v36 The other priests were the companions of Zechariah. They were Shemaiah, Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, *Judah and Hanani. They had the musical instruments that David, the man of God, chose. Ezra the teacher walked in front of them. v37 When they reached the Fountain Gate, they went up the steps of the area called ‘the city of David’. This was where the wall went up. The group walked along the wall above the house of David. They walked to the Water Gate. The Water Gate was on the east side.

Verses 31-37 Then Nehemiah took the leaders of the people onto the top of the wall. He divided them into two groups. One group marched one way round the walls. As they marched, they thanked God. And the priests played *trumpets and other musical instruments. Ezra was with this group.

Before the people had started to build, their enemies had laughed at them. The enemies of the *Jews did not want the people to build the walls again. Tobiah had even said that a fox would be able to knock the walls down. Now the walls were so wide and strong that the people could march on them.

v38 The other group who thanked God went in the opposite direction. I followed them with half of the people. We went along the wall, above the *Tower of the Ovens. We went to the Broad Wall. v39 We went above the Gate of Ephraim, past the Old Gate and the Fish Gate. We passed the *Tower of Hananel and the *Tower of the Hundred. We went by the Sheep Gate and then we stopped at the Gate of the Guards.