Nehemiah 8:2, commentary and pictures

The first day of the seventh month was the time of the Feast of Trumpets. The public reading belonged to that seventh month by appointment, a command that had not been observed during the captivity. After the return from captivity, many of the children of the covenant assembled at Jerusalem from all the surrounding country. The congregation brought together to hear the law consisted of men and women and all who could hear with understanding.

The wall of Jerusalem had been rebuilt and the gates set up, but a large part of the city still lay in ruins around the assembly, amid rough masonry and ruined buildings and sad reminders of departed glory. At the people's request to hear the Scriptures, Ezra the priest, now an aged man, stood on a raised platform of wood erected in one of the broadest streets, with his fellow Levites gathered at his right and left looking down over a sea of heads, and held open the Book of the Law of Moses before the large congregation, who listened with close attention. The law he brought before them includes the Ten Commandments. The reading lasted from morning until midday.

The reading had to be explained in the people's language because intermarriage had corrupted their Hebrew, so that all could understand. This explanation gave those who lacked understanding a sense of their sins and of God's requirements. Hearing the law reminded the people of their neglect of God's commands and the resulting loss of blessing and exile. Though they had sinned ignorantly, they were convicted, mourned and confessed, and the reading was expected to lead to deep repentance and a return to the Lord. The public reading was a privilege and a holy occasion, not a day meant for general sadness, and the people were encouraged to rejoice and praise God for His mercy.