---
title: "Ellicott"
description: "VIII. Nehemiah 7:73—Nehemiah 8:12.—Ezra instructs the people in the law. Nehemiah 7:73.—And when the seventh month came.—Here a new subject begins, as in"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/ellicotts-commentary-for-english-readers/nehemiah/8"
---

**VIII.**
[Nehemiah 7:73](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/73)—[Nehemiah 8:12](../../../kjv/nehemiah/8/12).—Ezra instructs the people in the law.
[Nehemiah 7:73](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/73).—**And when the seventh month came.**—Here a new subject begins, as in Ezra, whom Nehemiah copies: adopting a sentence, just as Ezra adopted the last words of the Chronicles, and with similar slight changes.

(1) **As one man.**—The unanimity rather than the number is emphatic here.
**And they spake unto Ezra.**—Who appears in this book for the first time, having probably been at the court for twelve years.

(2) **Both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding.**—Men, women, and children who had reached years of discretion.
**Upon the first day of the seventh month.**—As the seventh was the most important month, in a religious sense, so the first day, the Feast of Trumpets, was the most important new moon ([Leviticus 23:24](../../../kjv/leviticus/23/24)).

(3) **From the morning.**—*From daylight.* The Book of the Law must have been a comprehensive one. Out of it Ezra and his companions read hour after hour, selecting appropriate passages.
**And the ears of all the people . . . unto the book.**—A general statement; the detail now follows.

(4) **Pulpit of wood.**—Literally, a *tower of wood.* Fourteen persons, however, were on what is afterwards called a platform, or stair, by his side.

(6) **And Ezra blessed the Lord.**—The book was formally and solemnly opened in the sight of the people. At this request the multitude arose, and, after a doxology offered by Ezra, they all uttered a double Amen, “with lifting up of their hands,” in token of their most fervent assent; and then “with faces bowed to the ground,” in token of adoration.
**The great God** is Nehemiah’s expression, not Ezra’s; the sentence used is not reported.

(8) **Gave the sense.**—They expounded obscurer passages, and in doing so naturally translated into the vernacular Aramaic dialect.
**Caused them to understand the reading.**—This simply explains the former: they *expounded as they read.
*

(9) **Mourn not, nor weep.**—The days of high festival were unsuitable for public and, as it were, objective sorrow. The Day of Atonement was coming for that; as also the special day of fasting and covenant, which was already in the plan of Nehemiah and Ezra.

(10) **For the joy of the Lord is your strength** This beautiful sentence is, literally, *delight in Jehovah is a strong refuge.* It is capable of unlimited application in preaching and devotion.

(11) **So the Levites.**—As before, what Ezra said was repeated to the people in various directions by the Levites. But there was evidently an almost irrepressible emotion.

(12) **They had understood.**—They had caught the meaning of the command to rejoice.

(13) **The chief of the fathers.**—Not the vast multitude now, as the great feast was not yet.
**Even to understand.**—*To consider,* or *give attention to:* that is, to learn the full meaning of the almost forgotten festival. The dwelling in booths had fallen into disuse.

(13-18) The Feast of Tabernacles.

(15) **Saying.**—There is no such command in Leviticus; the Septuagint inserts, *“*And Ezra spake.” But it is better to adopt Houbigant’s slight emendation of the text, which thus runs: “And when they heard it, they proclaimed,” &c. The command, then, is to go out to the Mount of Olives, and gather, not precisely the branches which the ancient law required, but such as circumstances allowed.

(16) **And in their courts.**—Not only on the roofs, but in the internal courtyards.
**Of the house of God.**—The ministers of the Temple made these; and strangers to Jerusalem made them in the streets or open spaces near the gates.

(17) **The children of the captivity.**—The pathos of this designation is evident here.
**Done so.**—Though the feast had been kept ([1 Kings 8](../../../kjv/1-kings/8); [Ezra 3](../../../kjv/ezra/3)), it had never thus been kept with universal dwelling in booths.

(18) **According unto the manner.**—For the Azereth, or supplementary feast day, see [Leviticus 23:36](../../../kjv/leviticus/23/36).

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