Deuteronomy 31:12
Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:
The law was to be read aloud publicly to the whole assembly every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles. The reading was to take place at the appointed time before all the people gathered together. The gathering was to include everyone in the community, men and women and children and the resident foreigner within the gates, together with their families. No part of the household was to be left out, for women and children as well as adults were to be present to hear.
The purpose is given in order: that they may hear, and learn, and fear the Lord, and observe to do all the words of the law. Hearing the law read was meant to teach the people to fear God and to put all its commands into practice. Children, including those who had not yet known the law, were deliberately included so they might learn to fear God throughout their lives in the land where they dwelt. Women and children too must know their duty and do it.
The stranger within the gates was to be welcomed and included with the families when they gathered to hear and learn. He was to be given a share in the feasts and spiritual blessings, so that he might learn the law and glorify God through obedience. Repeated public teaching of this kind was to keep the law continually before the people as the means of preserving reverence for God and obedience to Him. Neglect of this counsel is linked to Israel's later failure, when ignorance of God's Word prevailed.
Obedience set before the people in this way brought life and prosperity, while disobedience brought death. Parents are therefore responsible to train their children diligently to know and obey the commandments and to love and fear God. The command was exemplified when Scripture was read to the returned exiles gathered in Jerusalem in the time of Ezra. That public instruction stands in contrast to the later ignorance of God's Word when priests taught human commandments.