Nehemiah 8:12-18

New English Translation

¹² So all the people departed to eat and drink and to share their food^[a] with others^[b] and to enjoy tremendous joy,^[c] for they had gained insight in the matters that had been made known to them.

¹³ On the second day of the month the family leaders^[d] met with^[e] Ezra the scribe, together with all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to consider the words of the law. ¹⁴ They discovered written in the law that the Lord had commanded through^[f] Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month, ¹⁵ and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message^[g] in all their cities and in Jerusalem: “Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.”

¹⁶ So the people went out and brought these things^[h] back and constructed temporary shelters for themselves, each on his roof and in his courtyard and in the courtyards of the temple^[i] of God and in the plaza of the Water Gate and the plaza of the Ephraim Gate. ¹⁷ So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. Everyone experienced very great joy.^{[j] 18} Ezra^[k] read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day to the last.^[l] They observed the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly^[m] as was required.^[n]