Deuteronomy 31:11
When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
The law was to be read aloud publicly before all Israel when the people came to appear before the Lord in the place He would choose. The reading was appointed for every seventh year, in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles. The gathering was to include men and women with children and the resident foreigners, so that the whole congregation could hear.
Its purpose was that all should hear and learn to fear God and to observe and obey the law. By this public hearing its precepts were to be kept familiar, honored, and obeyed. Children who had not yet known it were thus to learn to fear the Lord as long as they lived in the land. The command carries with it the duty of parents to obey God themselves and to teach His law continually to their children, that they may know and obey it. The prosperity of Israel depended on that obedience, for obedience brought life while disobedience brought death.
The appointment was not kept during the captivity. After the return to Jerusalem the people repented and asked to hear the Scriptures, and Ezra read to them from morning until midday.