Nehemiah 8:15
Ver. 15. And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem,.... That is, as Jarchi interprets it, by supplying it thus,
and they commanded that they should publish, &c. Ezra and those with him gave orders that heralds should proclaim in all cities where the Jews dwelt that the feast of tabernacles would be kept, and they should prepare for it; and which seems to be the true sense, since it is not written in the law that such a proclamation should be made; but this was an order of their own, thereby to give notice of it, that all might be provided:
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; in Le 23:40, where the first three of these seem to be called boughs of goodly trees; though the Jews {r} commonly understand them of pomecitrons, of which the Syriac version here interprets the myrtle branches; and by them are meant the citron branches, with the leaves and fruit, and which the Jews make absolutely necessary to the keeping of the feast, and for beautiful ones will give a large price; some of them go every year to Spain, and buy as many as they can, and dispose of them wherever Jews live {s}: and those branches were to be fetched, not properly speaking to make the booths of, which were made of boards and planks, but for the decoration of them; and it was not necessary, according to Aben Ezra, that some of each of these should be gathered for that purpose, but of any sort of them; for he interprets the words disjunctively olive branches, or pine branches, or myrtle branches, &c. these, according to the common notion of the Jews, were tied up in little bundles, and carried in the hand, which they call "lulabs"; and they observe {t}, the thick branches were for them, which included the rest; now these they were to fetch from the mount of Olives, and other mountains about Jerusalem; near to which also there was a place called Motza {u}; whither they went, and gathered the willows of the brook mentioned in Le 23:39.{r} T. Bab. Succah, fol. 35. 1. {s} Buxtorf. Synagog. Jud. c. 21. p. 454. {t} Succah, fol. 12. 1. {u} Misn. Saccah, c. 4. sect. 5. Nehemiah 8:16Ver. 16. So the people went forth, and brought them,.... Went out of Jerusalem to the mountains adjacent, and fetched in branches of the said trees, one or another:and made themselves booths, everyone upon the roof of his house; which were flat, De 22:8, and they might be made anywhere, so be it they were open to the air:and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God; the common people in the courtyards belonging to their houses, and the priests and Levites in the courts of the temple, the yards or open places adjoining to them:and in the street of the watergate; which led to that, and seems to have been a very large street, in which many booths might be built, Ne 3:26and in the street of the gate of Ephraim; which led to the gate through which the road lay to the tribe of Ephraim, see 2Ki 14:13, none were erected without the walls of the city, for fear of the enemy. Nehemiah 8:17Ver. 17. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of captivity made booths,.... These came to Jerusalem, and made them booths there; for there only was this feast kept, see Joh 7:2,and sat under the booths; there they dwelt during the seven days of it, in commemoration of their ancestors dwelling in booths in the wilderness, see Le 23:42for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so; Joshua observed it, when be had brought and settled the people of Israel in the land of Canaan; and it had been observed since, before this time, as appears from 1Ki 8:2 Ezr 3:4; but not so, with such exactness, with such zeal and affection, with such a regard to the law of God, as to read it every day of the feast, as in the next verse, and with such joy and gladness; wherefore there is no reason to suspect a corruption in the text, as a learned man {w} does, who supposes that Joshua is put for Josiah:and there was very great gladness; that they were restored unto and settled in their land, had the book of the law, and the knowledge of it, and were directed and enabled to observe it.{w} Delancy's Life of King David, vol. 1. p. 395. marg. Nehemiah 8:18Ver. 18. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God,.... That is, Ezra; this was done by him every day during the feast, whereas only the first and last days were the holy convocations on which it seems to have been read:and they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the manner; prescribed in Le 23:39.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.