Nehemiah 9:1
Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
The twenty-fourth day of the month belongs to the gathering in Jerusalem after the wall had been rebuilt, when much of the city still lay in ruins, where the people assembled to hear Ezra bless the Lord and bowed in worship. It records the people's response when the law was read in the days of Ezra, after hearing the law and recognizing their own sins and their nation's past departures from God. That response was a deep-seated work of repentance and returning to the Lord in a solemn service of repentance. Before the service they separated themselves from the heathen among them, and their fasting, sackcloth, and earth upon them expressed mourning and humility as they sought God's mercy.
In this service Ezra and Nehemiah humbled themselves before God, confessing both their own sins and the sins of their people and asking pardon as though they themselves were guilty, in a work involving patient prayer and suffering. The chapter repeats the Lord's works in behalf of His people and points out their sins in turning from God, which had separated them from God and led Him to permit them to be brought under the control of heathen nations. This demonstrated to a people for whom God had done so much that He would not serve with their sins.