Nehemiah 8:1

_AND ALL THE PEOPLE GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER AS ONE MAN INTO THE STREET THAT WAS BEFORE THE WATER GATE; AND THEY SPAKE UNTO EZRA THE SCRIBE TO BRING THE BOOK OF THE LAW OF MOSES, WHICH THE LORD HAD COMMANDED TO ISRAEL._ All the people gathered themselves together as one man. Having completed the insertion of the long parenthetical register (Nehemiah 7:6), Nehemiah resumes his narrative in this chapter. The occasion was the celebration of the feast of the seventh month (Nehemiah 7:73). The beginning of every month was ushered in as a sacred festival; but this, the commencement of the seventh month (Tisri), had been formerly kept with distinguished honour as "the feast of trumpets," which extended over two days. It was the first day of the seventh ecclesiastical year, and the new year's

1-8 Sacrifices were to be offered only at the door of the temple; but praying and preaching were, and are, services of religion, as acceptably performed in one place as in another. Masters of families should bring their families with them to the public worship of God. Women and children have souls to save, and are therefore to acquaint themselves with the word of God, and to attend on the means of grace. Little ones, as they come to reason, must be trained up in religion. Ministers when they go to the pulpit, should take their Bibles with them; Ezra did so. Thence they must fetch their knowledge; according to that rule they must speak, and must show that they do so. Reading the Scriptures in religious assemblies is an ordinance of God, whereby he is honoured, and his church edified. Those who hear the word, should understand it, else it is to them but an empty sound of words. It is ther...

CHAPTER VIII _Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites, read and interpret the laws_ _to the people_, 1-7. _The manner in which they do this important work_, 8. _The effect produced on the people's minds by hearing it_, 9. _The people are exhorted to be glad, and are told that the joy_ _of the Lord is their strength_, 10-12. _On the second day they assemble, and find that they should keep_ _the feast of tabernacles; which they accordingly religiously_ _solemnize for_ seven _days; and Ezra reads to them from the book_ _of the law_

THE STREET - Rather, “the square” or “court.” So in Nehemiah 8:16 (compare Ezra 10:9). The court seems to have been one between the eastern gate of the temple and the watergate in the city-wall. It would thus lie within the modern Haram area. EZRA THE SCRIBE - This is the first mention of Ezra in the present book, and the first proof we have had that he was contemporary with Nehemiah. Probably he returned to the court of Artaxerxes soon after effecting the reforms which he relates in Ezra 10, and did not revisit Jerusalem until about the time when the walls were completed, or after an absence of more than ten years. It was natural for the people to request him to resum

PART II. ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF RELIGION AMONG THE JEWS UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF NEHEMIAH. EXPOSITION RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE PEOPLE BY EZRA, AND CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES (Nehemiah 8:1.). It can scarcely be imagined that Ezra had been present in Jerusalem during the exciting scenes which have been enacted in the first part of this Book, an

II. THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The reading of the law before the water gate (Nehemiah 8:1)_ 2. A day of joy and not of mourning (Nehemiah 8:9) 3. The keeping of the feast of tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:13) Nehemiah 8:1. This interesting chapter gives the record of a gracious revival through the reading of the law. All the people gathered themselves together as one man in the street that was before the water gate, the place which suggests the cleansing and refreshing power of the Word. And as a united people they had but one desire, to hear the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded, to I

PART IV (Nehemiah 7:73_ b_ - Nehemiah 10:39). EZRA AND THE LAW. Nehemiah 7:73 b - Nehemiah 8:12. The Reading of the Law. Nehemiah 7:73 b. These words are repeated by mistake from Ezra 3:1. NEHEMIAH 8:1. _Cf._ Ezra 7:6. It is clear that we have here only part of the ori

READING OF THE LAW.-- Nehemiah 8:1-12. GOLDEN TEXT. --_ So they read in the book, in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading._. Nehemiah 8:8. TIME. --B. C. 445. PLACE. --Jerusalem. HELPFUL READINGS. -- Ezra 3:1-7; Ezra 7:1-10; Deuteronomy 31:9-13; Leviticus 10:11; Joshua 8:30-35....

AND. Then. STREET. broad or open space. See verses: Nehemiah 8:3; Nehemiah 8:16, Neh 8:26. Nehemiah 12:30; Nehemiah 12:37; Nehemiah 12:40. THE WATER GATE. See notes on Nehemiah 3:26 with Nehemiah 5:9. THE BOOK. scroll. The well-known book (Deuteron

_into the street_ R.V. INTO THE BROAD PLACE. The open space in front of -the water-gate" is probably the same as that mentioned in Ezra 10:9, -and all the people sat in the broad place before the house of God." Cf. Nehemiah 3:26, -the Nethinim dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water-gate toward the east." It is generally supposed that this broad place lay between the S.E. precincts of the Temple and the Eastern wall. _the water gate_ Cf. Nehemiah 3:26; Nehemiah 12:37. _they spake unto Ezra the scribe_ -They spake;" the impersonal plural implies that the whole community expressed the wish through the