The Pulpit Commentary — Nehemiah — Section 77

th~refore, to be most probable that he had good effect of these proceedings on his part been recalled to the court early in B.O. 456, appears in the next two chapters. and tl1Rt he was only no~· in the summer of Ver. 1.-The chapter shouhl commence, n.c. 444 allowed to return, perhaps at his own as in the Septuagint, with tho last two instance. If, at the beginning of the seventh clauses of eh. vii., and should run tints:- month, Tisri, the most sacred of the year, " And when the seventh month was come Ezra had just come back to Jerusalem from and the children of Israel were in thei; , prolonged absence, it would be most cities, all the people gathered themselves toget\J,er, as one man, into the court that natural that he should be asked to resume was before the water gate ; anrl they sp11ko his work of instruction by reading and ex- unto Ezra. the scribe/' &c. The "court" p unding the law of :Moses to the people (rehob) spoken of appears to have been (eh. viii. 1). The people's marked "atten- situated between the eastern gate of the tion" (ver. 3) would also be nature.I ; and temple and the city wall, nt the point where it was pierced by the "water gate." such a rending and e>..-pounding, after such They apake unto Ezra. It is remarkable an interval, would naturally have a great that the people <ZSk for instruction. Though effect. It would stir penitence ; it would they do not keep the law, they have a wake thought ; it would lead to greater yearning after it. They are not contented exactness in obsemng the law. These are with their existing condition, but desire better things, and they have an instinctive the results which seem to have followed. feeling that to hear God's word will help Ezra's reading was on the first day of the them. month (ver. 2), the "feast of trumpets," Ver. 2.-Ezra the priest brought the law. as the day was called. It led to a great Ezra, God's true priest, at once responded to weeping-" aJl the people wept, when they the call He did not say, "The law is difficult, hard to be understood, might mis- beard the words of the law" (ver. 9). As, lead you, should be reserved for the learned;" however, the day was one of the chief festi- but at once "brought it," and "read vals of the year, and therefore the display therein" before the congregation both of of grief was nn.fi.tting, Ezra checked it for men and women, and of all that could hear with understanding, i.e. of all (youths the time, and recommended liberal alms- and maidens) that were old enough to under- giving in the place of tears (ver. 10). His stand the words. advice was taken (ver. 12); and an increased Ver. 3.-From the morning until mid- desire to hear the law having been produced day. Or, "from daylight." He began as by hearing it, the people met again on the soon as it was light enough, and read on (he and his assistants-ver. 7) till noon, that second of Tisri, to be present at a second is, for six hours or more. The reading reading. Ezra thereupon directed their appears to have been varied by occasional attention to the impending "feast of exposition (vers. 7, 8). The ears of all the ta berns.cles," which had not now for some people were attentive. Though there is considerable time been celebrated with the no word in the Hebrew for "attentive," yet the meaning is quite correctly given : "the proper solemnities, and read to them the ears of all the people were to the book"- portions of the law which bore npon it fixed on that, and on nothing else. (ver. 14). .A much more exact and scrupul- Ver. 4.-Ezra . . . stood upon a pulpit ous observance of the legaJ regulations was of wood. Compare 2 Kings xi. 14; xxiii. the consequence-the dwelling in booths, 3, where, however, the term used is "'llCV, which had been given up, was revived "stand," and not ',"'IJO, "tower." In (ver. 17) ; the feast was continued during either case an elevated platform seems to be meant. ll[attithiah, and Shema. Theso the full eight days (ver. 18); the solemn persons are commonly supposed to have been assemblies on the fui;t day and the eighth priests, but there is nothing to prove it. were held (ihul.) ; and, above all, "day by They need not even have been Levites, since day, from the first day unto the last day," they were there not to teach, but only to do Ezra took care to " read in the book of the honour to Ezra. Ver. 6.-All the people stood up. Tho law of God" before the people, thus bringing Jews commonly sat to hear and stood up before them their practical duties in the to pray ; but in hearing they occasionally most solemn and effective way, and stirring stood up, to do greater honour to the person them up to holiness and repentance. The or the occasio11 (see Judges iii. 20). It i, Oil. VIJJ. 1-12.) THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. 81