Nehemiah 8:2

Ezra the priest cf. Ezra 7:1; Ezra 7:11.

the law i.e. the book of the law. Cf. 2 Corinthians 3:14 -the old covenant" for -the book of the old covenant." The word -Torah" is here used in the sense, which afterwards became universal, of the written -Law."

all that could hear with understanding lit. -every one of intelligence to hear and understand," i.e. all except quite children, cf. Nehemiah 10:28 -all …, their wives and their sons and their daughters, every one that had knowledge and understanding." The Vulgate -sapientium" gives a wrong idea.

upon the first day of the seventh month In the Priestly Laws the first day of the month Tisri was -the Feast of Trumpets" (see Leviticus 23:23-25; Numbers 29:1-6), a day of -holy convocation," cf. Nehemiah 8:9; see Ezra 3:1.

Were the people assembled to celebrate this festival, or were the people summoned on the first day of the month, because the new-moon days were always regarded as sacred in Palestine? Considering that the people were even uninstructed how to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles according to the Law (Nehemiah 8:13), it is not likely that they would have been acquainted with the -feast of trumpets" before the time of the reading of the Law. It is therefore most probable that the special holiness of the day lay in its being the new-moon day of the month in which occurred not only the change of year according to the autumn era but also the most popular of the Israelite festivals, -the feast of tabernacles." The observance of the new-moon seems to have been universal among Oriental nations in ancient times. Among the Israelites, it was at all times strictly maintained, cf. 1 Samuel 20:5; 2 Kings 4:23; Isaiah 1:13; Isaiah 66:23; Ezekiel 26:1; Ezekiel 46:1; Hosea 2:11; Amos 8:5; Haggai 1:1; Jdt 8:6; Colossians 2:16.