Wednesday
Nehemiah 8:1-8

The construction crews accomplished the rebuilding of the city walls in record time—52 days (Nehemiah 6:15). Days of celebration followed. The people gathered at one of the city gates and listened to Ezra read from the book of Moses—the first five books of the Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

We don’t know what chapters/verses Ezra read. We do know that when he began, the people stood in reverence for God’s Word. The people listened. The people worshipped.

Unfortunately, the words Ezra read were in Hebrew. Unfortunately, most of the people did not understand. They grew up in Babylon where a language called Aramaic supplanted Hebrew. Temple workers fanned out among the crowd and translated so the audience could comprehend (8:8).