Nehemiah 8:15

_AND THAT THEY SHOULD PUBLISH AND PROCLAIM IN ALL THEIR CITIES, AND IN JERUSALEM, SAYING, GO FORTH UNTO THE MOUNT, AND FETCH OLIVE BRANCHES, AND PINE BRANCHES, AND MYRTLE BRANCHES, AND PALM BRANCHES, AND BRANCHES OF THICK TREES, TO MAKE BOOTHS, AS IT IS WRITTEN._ GO FORTH UNTO THE MOUNT, AND FETCH ... PALM BRANCHES ... It appears from this that palms were growing in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, probably on the mount of Olives (cf. John 12:13)....

13-18 They found written in the law about the feast of tabernacles. Those who diligently search the Scriptures, find things written there which they have forgotten. This feast of tabernacles was a representation of the believer's tabernacle state in this world, and a type of the holy joy of the gospel church. The conversion of the nations to the faith of Christ, is foretold under the figure of this feast, Zechariah 14:16. True religion will render us strangers and pilgrims upon earth. We read and hear the word acceptably and profitably, when we do according to what is written therein; when what appears to be our duty is revived, after it has been neglected. They minded the substance; else the ceremony had been of no use. They did it, rejoicing in God and his goodness. These are the means which the Spirit of God crowns with success, in bringing the hearts of sinners to tremble and to bec...

Verse 15. _FETCH OLIVE BRANCHES_] For every thing concerning this feast of tabernacles, see the notes on Lev. xxiii., and the other places _there_ referred to....

THE MOUNT - The “mount of Olives” is probably intended. PINE BRANCHES - Rather, “branches of the wild olive.” The actual trees named by the Law may have become scarce. It was probably considered that the spirit of the command was kept if branches of trees similar in general character to those named in Leviticus were employed....

EXPOSITION NEHEMIAH 8:13 AND ON THE SECOND DAY WERE GATHERED TOGETHER THE CHIEF OF THE FATHERS. At times it is true that "increase of appetite doth grow by what it feeds on." Once let the sweetness of the Divine word be tasted and appreciated, and there springs up in the heart instantly a desire for more—a wish to continue in the study—a feeling like that of the Psalmist when he said, "Lord, what love have I unto thy law: _all the day long _is my study in it" (Psalms 119:97). The Jews, taught by Ezra in the law of God on the first day of the month, return to him on the second, desirous of hearing more, hungering and thirsting after the word of life, of which they have felt the power and the excellency. TO UNDERSTAND. Rather,

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

CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. The further reading of the Law and its more minute study show that this is just the time at which the Feast of Tabernacles ought to be celebrated; the people, who are apparently quite ignorant of this feast, forthwith proceed to celebrate it. Nehemiah 8:14. they found written in the law: see Exodus 23:26; Leviticus 23:39; Numbers 29:12; Deuteronomy 16:13. Nehemiah 8:17. for since

MOUNT. hill country. AS IT IS WRITTEN. See Leviticus 23:42....

_and that they should publish and proclaim … saying_ In Leviticus 23:1; Leviticus 23:4 the children of Israel are commanded to -proclaim the set feasts of the Lord." The actual words of this verse are nowhere to be found in the Pentateuch. But there is no reason on that account to suppose a corruption in the text, and to read as Houbigant, whom Rawlinson follows, -And when they heard it, they proclaimed &c.," a text for which only a slight emendation is necessary. The LXX. puts a full stop at -Jerusalem," and begins a new sentence, -And Ezra said, Go forth." The fact is that the writer only refers in a general way to the substance of the passage in Leviticus 23 relating to -the feast of tabernacles." The mention of -Jeru

AND THAT THEY SHOULD PUBLISH AND PROCLAIM— _Which when they heard, they sent preachers into all the cities, and into Jerusalem, saying, Go forth,_ &c. Houbigant. _FETCH OLIVE-BRANCHES,_ &C.— See Scheuchzer's _Physique Sacree,_ tom. 6: p. 6....