[Sidenote:  Neh. 8:9-12] Then Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to Jehovah your God; mourn not, nor weep; for all the people when they heard the words of the law.  Then he said to them, Go away, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be troubled, for the joy of Jehovah is your bulwark.  So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy, and do not be troubled.  And all the people went away to eat and drink and to send portions and to make a great rejoicing, for they had understood the words which had been made known to them.

[Sidenote:  Neh. 8:13-19] And on the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered together to Ezra the scribe, in order to gain an insight into the words of the law.  And they found written in the law, how Jehovah had commanded by Moses that the Israelites should dwell in booths at the feast in the seventh month; and that they should proclaim aloud in all their cities and in Jerusalem:  Go forth to the mount and bring olive branches and branches of wild olive and myrtle and palm branches and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is prescribed.  So the people went out and brought them, and made themselves booths, each man upon the roof of his house and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God and in the open space at the Water Gate and in the open space at the Ephraim Gate.  And all the assembly of those who had come back from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the Israelites had not done so.  And there was very great gladness.  And day by day, from the first to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.  And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day, as was the custom, there was a concluding solemn assembly.

[Sidenote:  Neh. 9:1-3] Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth and earth upon their heads.  And the children of Israel had separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.  And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God a fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped Jehovah their God.

[Sidenote:  Neh. 9:6-8] And Ezra said, Thou art Jehovah, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven and the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and thou preservest them all and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.  Thou art Jehovah the God, who didst choose Abraham and bring him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and didst give him the name Abraham, and find his heart faithful before thee and make a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites to his descendants, and hast performed thy words, for thou art righteous.