The verse stands in Nehemiah 8-10. That passage belongs to the account of Nehemiah's work from about 446 to 408 on his return to Jerusalem in the last reform, carried on with the highest good of Jerusalem as the Lord's city and people always in mind, with impatience toward slackness in doing God's work and indignation toward sinning against God by uniting with heathen peoples. Within that history the verse belongs to the record of the people's solemn covenant to keep the law of Moses that Ezra had brought back to Jerusalem after the exile, a covenant that established the Pentateuch as the Jews' authoritative sacred book. The narrative of life in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah to which the verse belongs is confirmed by discoveries in ancient lands adjoining the land of Israel that had dealings with that people.
The verse stands in Nehemiah 8-10. That passage belongs to the account of Nehemiah's work from about 446 to 408 on his return to Jerusalem in the last reform, carried on with the highest good of Jerusalem as the Lord's city and people always in mind, with impatience toward slackness in doing God's work and indignation toward sinning against God by uniting with heathen peoples. Within that history the verse belongs to the record of the people's solemn covenant to keep the law of Moses that Ezra had brought back to Jerusalem after the exile, a covenant that established the Pentateuch as the Jews' authoritative sacred book. The narrative of life in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah to which the verse belongs is confirmed by discoveries in ancient lands adjoining the land of Israel that had dealings with that people.