¹All the people gathered as one man to the broad place which was before the gate of the waters, and they said to Ezra the scribe to bring the scroll of the instruction of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded Israel.

²Ezra the priest brought the instruction before the company, both men and women and everyone who understood, to hear, on the first day of the seventh month.

³He read aloud from it facing the broad place which was in front of the gate of the waters, from the light until the middle of the day, before the men and the women and those who understood; and the ears of all the people were toward the scroll of the instruction.

⁴Ezra the scribe stood on an elevated stage of wood that they had made for the word, and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and on his left Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

⁵Ezra opened the scroll before the eyes of all the people, for he was above all the people; and as he opened it, all the people stood up.

⁶Ezra blessed Yahweh the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen,' with the lifting of their hands; and they bowed low and bowed down to Yahweh, with their faces to the land.

⁷And Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites were making the people understand the instruction, while the people were at their standing place.

⁸They read aloud from the scroll, in the instruction of God, declaring it distinctly and giving insight, and made them understand the reading.

⁹Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were making the people understand, said to all the people, 'This day is holy to Yahweh your God; do not mourn and do not weep.' For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the instruction.

¹⁰He said to them, 'Go, eat the fat pieces and drink the sweet things, and send portions to anyone for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh, it is your stronghold.'

¹¹And the Levites were hushing all the people, saying, 'Hush, for this day is holy, and do not be grieved.'

¹²And all the people went to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great gladness, because they understood the words that they had made known to them.

¹³And on the second day the heads of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gathered to Ezra the scribe, and to gain insight into the words of the instruction.

¹⁴And they found written in the instruction, which Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses, that the children of Israel were to dwell in shelters at the festival in the seventh month.

¹⁵And that they should make a voice heard and cause it to pass through all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, 'Go out to the hill country and bring leaves of the olive, and leaves of the oil tree, and leaves of the myrtle, and leaves of the palms, and leaves of the leafy tree, to make shelters, as it is written.'

¹⁶So the people went out and brought them, and made themselves shelters, each on his own roof, in their courts, in the courts of the house of God, in the broad place of the gate of the waters, and in the broad place of the gate of Ephraim.

¹⁷All the company of those who returned from the captivity made shelters and dwelled in the shelters; for from the days of Jeshua son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

¹⁸He read aloud from the scroll of the instruction of God day by day, from the first day until the last day; and they celebrated the festival seven days, and on the eighth day there was an assembly, as prescribed.