Study Desk

Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for this occasion. At his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and at his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, "This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law.

Then Nehemiah told them, "Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. The Israelites kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly, according to the ordinance.

While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the LORD their God.

You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the people of his land, for You knew that they had acted with arrogance against our fathers. You made a name for Yourself that endures to this day.

You led them with a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way which they should travel.

Even after they had cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, "This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt," and they had committed terrible blasphemies,

You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.

For forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.

Yet You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets, but they would not listen; so You gave them into the hands of the people of the land.

But in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them; nor did You forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.

For even while they were in their kingdom, with the abundant goodness You had given them, and in the spacious and fertile land You set before them, they would not serve You or turn from their wicked ways.

We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons.

We also place ourselves under the obligation to contribute a third of a shekel yearly for the service of the house of our God:

for the showbread, for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings, for the Sabbath offerings, for the New Moon and appointed feasts, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the duties of the house of our God.

We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law.

For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers stay. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God."

For there was a command from the king concerning the singers, an ordinance regulating their daily activities.

As for the villages with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived in Kiriath-arba, Dibon, and Jekabzeel, and their villages;