Nehemiah 8-9
King James Version
8 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.
2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
3 And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
4 And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up:
6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
7 Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.
8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
9 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
11 So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.
12 And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
13 And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law.
14 And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:
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.
16 So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.
9 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the Lord their God.
4 Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God.
5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
6 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
7 Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;
10 And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day.
11 And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
15 And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.
16 But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.
18 Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;
19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
22 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23 Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
24 So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
25 And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.
26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the land of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;
29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.
30 Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.
33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
34 Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
35 For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.
36 Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:
37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
Nehemiah 8-9
1599 Geneva Bible
8 2 Ezra gathereth together the people, and readeth to them the Law. 12 They rejoice in Israel for the knowledge of the word of God. 15 They keep the feast of Tabernacles or booths.
1 And all the people assembled themselves [a]together, in the street that was before the water gate, and they spake unto Ezra the [b]Scribe, that he would bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
2 And Ezra the Priest brought the Law before the Congregation both of men and women, and of all [c]that could hear and understand it, in the first day of the seventh month,
3 And he read therein in the street that was before the water gate (from the morning until [d]the midday) before men and women, and them that understood it, and the ears of all the people hearkened unto the book of the Law.
4 And Ezra the Scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood which he had made for the preaching, and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and on his left hand Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchijah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5 And Ezra opened the book before all the people: for he was [e]above all the people: and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
6 And Ezra praised the Lord the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed themselves, and worshipped the Lord with their faces toward the ground.
7 Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites caused the people to understand the Law, and the people stood in their place.
8 And they read in the book of the Law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
9 Then Nehemiah (which is Tirshatha) and Ezra the Priest and Scribe, and the Levites that instructed the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God: mourn not, neither weep: for all the people [f]wept, when they heard the words of the Law.
10 He said also unto them, Go and eat of the fat, and drink the sweet, and send part unto them, for whom none is [g]prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: be ye not sorry therefore: for the [h]joy of the Lord is your strength.
11 And the Levites made silence throughout all the people, saying, Hold your peace: for the day is holy, be not sad therefore.
12 Then all the people went to eat and to drink, and to send away part, and to make great joy, because they had understood the words that they had taught them.
13 And on the second day the chief fathers of all the people, the Priests and the Levites were gathered unto Ezra the Scribe, that he also might instruct them in the words of the Law.
14 And they found written in the Law, (that the Lord had commanded Moses) that the children of Israel should dwell in (A)booths in the feast of the seventh month,
15 And that they should cause it to be declared and proclaimed in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and bring olive branches, and pine branches, and branches of [i]myrtle, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.
16 So the people went forth and brought them, and made them booths, every one upon the [j]roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street by the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
17 And all the Congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity, made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the [k]time of Jeshua the son of Nun unto this day, had not the children of Israel done so, and there was very great joy.
18 And he read in the book of the Law of God every day, from the first day unto the last day. And they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.
9 The people repent, and forsake their strange wives. 5 The Levites exhort them to praise God, 6 Declaring his wonders, 26 And their ingratitude, 30 And God’s great mercies toward them.
1 In the four and twentieth day of this [l]month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.
2 (And they that were of the seed of Israel were separated from all the [m]strangers) and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the Law of the Lord their God four times on the day, and they [n]confessed and worshipped the Lord their God four times.
4 Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God.
5 And the Levites said, even Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, Stand up and praise the Lord your God forever and ever, and let them praise thy glorious Name, O God, which excelleth above all thanksgiving and praise.
6 Thou art Lord alone: thou hast made heaven, and the heaven of all heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that are in them and thou preservest them all and the host of the heaven worshippeth thee.
7 Thou art, O Lord, the God, that hast chosen Abram, and broughtest him out of (B)Ur in Chaldeans, and (C)madest his name Abraham,
8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, (D)and madest a Covenant with him, to give unto his seed the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, and Perizzites, and Jebusites, and Girgashites, and hast performed thy words, because thou art just.
9 (E)Thou hast also considered the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the red Sea,
10 And showed tokens and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them: therefore thou madest thee a Name, as appeareth this day.
11 (F)For thou didst break up the Sea before them, and they went through the midst of the sea on dry land: and those that pursued them, hast thou cast into the bottoms as a stone, in the mighty waters:
12 And (G)leddest them in the day with a pillar of a cloud, and in the night with a pillar of fire to give them light in the way that they went.
13 (H)Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest unto them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, ordinances and good Commandments,
14 And declaredst unto them thine holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, and ordinances, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
15 (I)And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, (J)and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst: and (K)promisedst them that they should go in, and take possession of the land: for the which thou hadst lifted up thine hand for to give them.
16 But they and our fathers behaved themselves proudly and hardened their neck, so that they hearkened not unto thy Commandments,
17 But refused to obey, and would not remember thy marvelous works that thou hadst done for them, but hardened their necks, and had in their heads to return to their bondage by their rebellion: but thou, O God of mercies, gracious and full of compassion, of long-suffering, and of great mercy, yet forsookest them not.
18 Moreover, when they made them a molten calf (and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt) and committed great blasphemies,
19 Yet thou for thy great mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: (L)the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them the way, neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way whereby they should go.
20 Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy Manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
21 Thou didst also feed them forty years in the wilderness: they lacked nothing: (M)their clothes waxed not old, and their feet [o]swelled not.
22 And thou gavest them kingdoms and people, and [p]scatteredst them into corners: so they possessed (N)the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
23 And thou didst multiply their children like the stars of the heaven, and broughtest them into the land, whereof thou hadst spoken unto their fathers, that they should go, and possess it.
24 So the children went in, and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, even the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, that they might do with them what they would.
25 And they took their strong cities and the fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns dug out, vineyards and olives, and trees for food in abundance, and they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and lived in pleasure through thy great goodness.
26 Yet they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy Law behind their backs, and slew thy Prophets (which [q]protested among them to turn them unto thee) and committed great blasphemies.
27 Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies that vexed them: yet in the time of their affliction, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from the heaven, and through thy great mercies thou gavest them saviors, who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.
28 But when they had [r]rest, they returned to do evil before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them, yet when they converted and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven, and deliveredst them according to thy great mercies many times,
29 And protestedst among them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy Law: but they behaved themselves proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments ((O)which a man should do and live in them) and [s]pulled away the shoulder, and were stiff-necked, and would not [t]hear.
30 Yet thou [u]didst forbear them many years, and protestedst among them by thy Spirit, even by the hand of thy Prophets, but they would not hear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.
31 Yet for thy great mercies thou hast not consumed them, neither forsaken them: for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
32 Now therefore our God, (P)thou great God, mighty and terrible, that keepest covenant and (Q)mercy, let not all the affliction that hath come unto us, seem a little before thee, that is, to our Kings, to our Princes, and to our Priests, and to our Prophets, and to our fathers, and to all thy people since the time of the [v]kings of Assyria unto this day.
33 Surely thou art just in all that is come upon us: for thou hast [w]dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
34 And our kings and our princes, our priests and our fathers have not done thy Law, nor regarded thy commandments, nor thy protestations, wherewith thou hast [x]protested among them.
35 And they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou showedst unto them, and in the large and fat land which thou didst set before them, and have not converted from their evil works.
36 Behold, we are servants this day, and the land that thou gavest unto our fathers, to eat the [y]fruit thereof, and the goodness thereof, behold, we are servants therein.
37 And it yieldeth much fruit unto the kings whom thou hast set over us, because of our sins: and they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great affliction.
38 Now because of all this we make [z]a sure covenant, and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our Priests seal unto it.
Footnotes
- Nehemiah 8:1 Hebrew, as one man.
- Nehemiah 8:1 Read Ezra 7:6.
- Nehemiah 8:2 Which had age and discretion to understand.
- Nehemiah 8:3 This declareth the great zeal, that the people had to hear the word of God.
- Nehemiah 8:5 To the intent that his voice might be the better heard.
- Nehemiah 8:9 In considering their offences against the Law. Therefore the Levites do not reprove them for mourning, but assure them of God’s mercies forasmuch as they are repentant.
- Nehemiah 8:10 That is, remember the poor.
- Nehemiah 8:10 Rejoice in the Lord, and he will give you strength.
- Nehemiah 8:15 Or, goodly branches, as Lev. 3:40.
- Nehemiah 8:16 For their houses were made flat above, read Deut. 22:8.
- Nehemiah 8:17 Which was almost a thousand years.
- Nehemiah 9:1 Meaning, the seventh.
- Nehemiah 9:2 Hebrew, strange children.
- Nehemiah 9:3 They made confession of their sins, and used prayers.
- Nehemiah 9:21 Though the way was tedious and long.
- Nehemiah 9:22 Meaning, the heathen whom he drove out.
- Nehemiah 9:26 Taking heaven and earth to witness, that God would destroy them, except they returned, as 2 Chron. 24:19.
- Nehemiah 9:28 He declareth how God’s mercies ever contended with the wickedness of the people, who ever in their prosperity forgat God.
- Nehemiah 9:29 Which is a similitude taken of oxen that shrink at the yoke or burden, as Zech. 7:11.
- Nehemiah 9:29 When thou didst admonish them by thy Prophets.
- Nehemiah 9:30 Hebrew, thou didst prolong upon them many years.
- Nehemiah 9:32 By whom we were led away into captivity, and have been appointed to be slain, as Esther 3:13.
- Nehemiah 9:33 He confesseth that all these things came to them justly for their sins, but he appealeth from God’s justice to his mercies.
- Nehemiah 9:34 That thou wouldest destroy them, except they would return to thee, as verse 26.
- Nehemiah 9:36 That is, to be the Lord’s therof.
- Nehemiah 9:38 Thus by affliction they promise to keep God’s commandments, whereunto they could not be brought by God’s great benefits.
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