Ezra Reads God's Law to the People

All the people gathered in the open place by the Water Gate and asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that God had commanded for Israel. Ezra brought it before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding. From early morning until midday, he read aloud, and the people listened carefully.

Ezra stood on a wooden platform made for this purpose, with other men standing beside him. When he opened the book where everyone could see, the people stood up. Ezra blessed the great God, and the people answered together, lifted their hands, bowed down, and worshipped God with their faces to the ground.

The Levites helped the people understand the law. The reading was made clear, and its meaning was explained so the people could understand. When they heard the words of the law, the people began to weep. But Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites told them that this holy day was not for mourning. They were to eat, drink, share with those who had nothing prepared, and not stay in sorrow.

So the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions to others, and to celebrate with great joy, because they had understood what had been told to them. Hearing God's law and understanding it changed the day for them.

On the next day, family leaders, priests, and Levites came to Ezra to study the law more closely. They found the command that Israel should live in temporary shelters during the feast in the seventh month. So the people gathered branches and made shelters on roofs, in courtyards, in the courts of God's house, and in the wide places by the Water Gate and Ephraim's Gate.

The whole assembly of those who had returned from captivity lived in these shelters, and there was very great gladness. The passage says they had not celebrated in this way since the days of Joshua son of Nun. Day by day the book of the law of God was read. They kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, as the law required. What helps you move from only hearing God's word to truly understanding and obeying it?