8:13Nehemiah 8:13

The gathering took place at Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of Trumpets, after the wall had been rebuilt and the gates set up, while a large part of the city still lay in ruins.PK 661.1–2 On the second day, the next day, the chief of the fathers of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, gathered together unto Ezra the scribe to understand the words of the law.PK 661.3+2 The book Ezra brought before the assembly was the Book of the Law of Moses, with the Ten Commandments framing the event.PK 661 Ezra, now an aged man, stood on a raised platform of wood erected in a broad street amid ruined buildings and reminders of departed glory, holding the open book before a large assembly gathered from the surrounding country, with his Levite brethren standing at his right and left.PK 661.1–2+1 While the assembly listened attentively, Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and the people answered Amen and bowed with faces to the ground in worship.PK 661.1–2+1

Because intermarriage with other nations had corrupted the Hebrew language, the law needed careful explanation in language the people could understand, and the Levites gave its sense and helped the people understand what was read.PK 661.3 The reading and explanation of the law continued the following day, and on the tenth day of the seventh month the Day of Atonement services were performed as God had commanded.PK 665.1 The reading of the law in that time was expected to bring deep repentance and a return to the Lord.DA 215.3–216.1 Reading God's requirements moved the people to consider their condition and their departure from God.Ms 121, 1898, par. 7–8 The account that follows recounts the Lord's works for the people and identifies their sins as the cause of their separation from Him and their subjection to heathen nations.Ms 121, 1898, par. 7–8