The Return · 445 BC
Chapter 19
Ezra Reads the Law
Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”
For parents
Nothing violent happens in this chapter itself. The long prayer in Nehemiah 9 recalls some hard things, a line or two at a time and without detail: the Egyptians who chased Israel being thrown into the sea, the peoples of Canaan handed over to Israel, Israel’s ancestors killing the prophets who warned them (9:26), and Israel handed over to its enemies.
The wall of was finished, and the people of Israel were living in their own towns. Then the seventh month came, and they all gathered together as one in the open square in front of the . There they asked the to bring them the book of the law of , the law the Lord had commanded Israel to keep.
So Ezra the brought the law out to the whole gathering, men and women and everyone who could listen and understand. It was the first day of the seventh month. From early morning until midday he read from it to the men, the women and all who could understand, facing the open square at the water gate. Everyone listened closely to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform they had made for this. Men stood beside him on either side: Mattithiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and others on his right, and Pedaiah, Zechariah, Meshullam and others on his left.
Ezra opened the book where all the people could see it, because he stood higher than all of them. And when he opened it, all the people stood up.
Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. All the people lifted up their hands and answered, “! Amen!” They bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Bani, Sherebiah, Hodiah and others, and the with them, helped the people understand the law, while the people stayed in their places. They read clearly from the book of God’s law and explained what it meant, so that the people understood what was read.
The people were all in tears when they heard the words of the law. Then the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe, along with the Levites who taught the people, said to them all, “Today is holy to the Lord your God. Don’t mourn, and don’t cry.”
Then he said to them, “Go now. Eat rich food and drink sweet drinks, and send some to anyone who has nothing ready. Today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be sad, because the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The Levites calmed all the people. “Hush,” they said. “The day is holy. Don’t be sad.”
So all the people went off to eat and drink, to send food to others, and to celebrate, because they had understood the words spoken to them.
On the second day, the heads of the families of all the people, and the priests and the Levites, met with Ezra the scribe to study the words of the law.
In the law they found what the Lord had commanded through Moses: the people of Israel were to live in booths at the feast of the seventh month, the . And they were to spread the word through all their cities and in Jerusalem: “Go out to the mountains and get branches of olive and wild olive, of and palm, and of trees thick with leaves, to make shelters, as it is written.”
So the people went out and brought branches back, and made themselves shelters. They built them on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of God’s house, in the square by the water gate, and in the square by .
The whole gathering of those who had come back from captivity made shelters and lived in them. The people of Israel had not done this since the days of the son of Nun. And there was very great joy.
Day by day, from the first day to the last, the book of God’s law was read. They kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held a solemn gathering, as the law required.
The people of Israel gathered again on the twenty-fourth day of this month. They were and wearing , with dirt on them.
Those descended from Israel separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins and the wrongs their ancestors had done.
They stood up in their places. For a fourth of the day they read the book of the law of the Lord their God, and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.
Then Kadmiel, Bunni, Sherebiah, Chenani and other Levites stood up on the stairs and called out loudly to the Lord their God.
Then the Levites, Kadmiel, Hashabneiah, Hodiah, Pethahiah and others, said:
“Stand up and bless the Lord your Godfrom everlasting to everlasting!May your glorious name be blessed,lifted high above all blessing and praise!”
Their prayer went back to the beginning:
“You are the Lord, you alone.You made the heavens, and the heavens above them, with all their army,the earth and everything on it,the seas and everything in them,and you keep them all alive.The army of heaven worships you.”
They remembered how the Lord had chosen , brought him out of , and given him the name . The Lord found that Abraham’s heart was faithful to him, and he made a with him. He promised to give Abraham’s descendants the land of the , the , the , the , the and the . “And you have kept your word,” they said, “because you do what is right.”
They went on to Egypt and the sea:
“You saw our ancestors suffering in and heard them cry out by the .You did signs and wonders against ,against all his servants and against all the people of his land,because you knew how proudly they treated our ancestors,and you made yourself a name that stands to this day.You split the sea in front of them,and they walked through the middle of it on dry ground.You threw the men chasing them into the depths,like a stone into the mighty waters.By day you led them in a of cloud,and by night in a pillar of fire,to light the way they should go.”
Next the prayer came to Sinai:
“You also came down on Mount and spoke with them from heaven.You gave them fair rules and true laws,good decrees and commands.You made your holy known to them,and through Moses your servant you gave them commandments, decrees and a law.You gave them bread from the sky when they were hungry,and brought water out of the rock for them when they were thirsty.And you commanded them to go in and take the landyou had sworn to give them.”
Then it turned to what their ancestors had done:
“But they and our ancestors grew proud.They were stubborn and did not listen to your commandments.They refused to obey,and forgot the wonders you had done among them.They grew stubborn and rebelled,and chose a leader to take them back to slavery.But you are a God who forgives,gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and full of loving kindness,and you did not abandon them.”
And they remembered the wilderness:
“Even when they made themselves a metal calfand said, ‘This is your God, who brought you up out of Egypt,’and committed awful ,even then, in your great mercy,you didn’t abandon them in the wilderness.The pillar of cloud didn’t leave them by day, to lead them on their way,and the pillar of fire didn’t leave them by night, to light the way they should go.You gave your good Spirit to teach them.You did not hold back your from their mouths,and when they were thirsty you gave them water.For forty years in the wilderness you took care of them.They had everything they needed.Their clothes never wore out, and their feet never swelled.”
They told how God had given their ancestors kingdoms and peoples, and divided them up among them. So they took the land of , the king of , and the land of , the king of . He made their children as many as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land he had told their ancestors to go in and take.
So the children went in and took the land. God brought down the Canaanites who lived there. He handed them over to Israel, with their kings and the peoples of the land, so that Israel could do with them as they pleased. They captured walled cities and rich land. They took houses full of good things, dug out, vineyards, olive groves, and plenty of fruit trees. So they ate their fill and grew fat, and they delighted in God’s great goodness.
Then the prayer told of their years in the land:
“But they disobeyed and rebelled against you.They threw your law behind their backs.They killed your ,who spoke out against them so they would turn back to you,and they committed awful blasphemies.So you gave them up to their enemies, who made them suffer.But when trouble came and they cried out to you,you heard from heaven,and in your great mercy you gave them saviorswho saved them out of their enemies’ hands.But once they had peace, they did evil in your sight again,so you left them in their enemies’ hands, and their enemies ruled them.Yet when they turned back and cried to you again,you heard from heaven,and many times you saved them, in your mercy.
“You warned them, to bring them back to your law,but they were proud and would not listen to your commands.They sinned against your rules,though whoever keeps them will live by them.They turned their backs, grew stubborn, and would not hear.Yet for many years you put up with them,and through your prophets you warned them by your Spirit,but they would not listen.So you gave them up to the peoples of the lands.Yet in your great mercy you didn’t wipe them out,or abandon them,because you are a gracious and merciful God.”
Then the prayer came to their own day:
“So now, our God, the great, the mighty and the awesome God,who keeps the covenant and shows loving kindness,don’t let all our trouble seem small to you,the trouble that has come on us, on our kings, on our leaders,on our priests, on our prophets, on our ancestors and on all your people,from the time of the kings of to this day.Yet you have done right in all that has happened to us.You have been true, but we have done wrong.
“Our kings and our leaders, our priests and our ancestorshave failed to keep your law,or to listen to your commandments and the warnings you gave them.Even when they had their own kingdom,and all the great goodness you gave them,and the broad, rich land you laid out before them,they did not serve you,and they did not turn from their wicked deeds.
“Look, we are servants today.In the land you gave our ancestorsfor them to eat its fruit and its good things,look, we are servants.It grows a rich harvest for the kingswhom you have set over us because of our sins.And they have power over our bodies and our livestock,to do with as they like,and we are in great distress.”
And they ended:
“Yet for all this, we are making a firm covenantand writing it down,and our leaders, Levites and priestsare setting their on it.”
The first to set their seals on it were Nehemiah the governor, Hacaliah’s son, and Zedekiah. Then came Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah and others: these were the priests. Next came the Levites, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Hodiah and their brothers, and then the chiefs of the people, Parosh, Elam, Zattu, Bani and many more.
All the others joined their relatives, the nobles. They were the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers and the , and everyone who had separated from the peoples of the lands to keep God’s law, with their wives, their sons and their daughters, all who could understand. They swore an oath and called a down on themselves if they broke it. They would live by God’s law, which God gave through Moses his servant, and they would obey all the commandments of the Lord, their Lord, with all his rules and laws.
They promised not to let their daughters marry the peoples of the land, and not to take those peoples’ daughters as wives for their sons.
If the peoples of the land brought goods or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, they would not buy from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day. And they would give up the crops of the , and would not demand payment of any debt.
They made it a rule for themselves to give a third of a every year, about an eighth of an ounce, for the service of the house of their God. It was for the , for the regular and the regular , for the Sabbaths, the and the set feasts, for the holy things, for the to make for Israel, and for all the work of the house of their God.
The priests, the Levites and the people cast for the wood offering. Family by family, at set times every year, they would bring wood to the house of their God, to burn on the of the Lord their God, as it is written in the law.
Year by year they would bring to the Lord’s house the first fruits of their ground and the first fruits of every kind of tree. As it is written in the law, they would bring the firstborn of their sons and of their livestock, the firstborn of their herds and their flocks, to the house of their God, to the priests who serve there. The law said that a firstborn son was to be bought back for five shekels.
They would bring the first of their dough, their , the fruit of every kind of tree, the new wine and the oil to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of their God. And they would bring the of their ground to the Levites, because the Levites collect the tithes in all the farming towns.
A priest descended from would be with the Levites when they collected the tithes. The Levites would bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of their God, to the storerooms of the treasury.
The people of Israel and the Levites would bring the wave offering of grain, new wine and oil to the storerooms. The things used in the sanctuary are kept there, and the priests who serve are there too, with the gatekeepers and the singers. And they said, “We will not abandon the house of our God.”