Nehemiah 9:3, commentary and pictures

The gathering was at the Feast of Trumpets, when people from the surrounding country assembled in Jerusalem. Ezra stood on a raised wooden platform in a broad street among partly ruined buildings, holding open the Book of the Law of Moses before a large attentive assembly, with other men standing with him on the platform. The law that was read was the law containing the Ten Commandments. As Ezra blessed the Lord, the people answered with amen, bowed their heads, and worshiped with their faces to the ground.

The reading joined a recounting of the Lord's works in behalf of His people with an exposure of their sins in turning from God. Hearing the law convicted the people of their own sins and those of earlier generations, and they humbled themselves before God, confessed both their own sins and the sins of their people as though they themselves had committed them, and asked for forgiveness. Their sins had separated them from God and caused the loss of His protection, so He had permitted them to come under the control of heathen nations and to be scattered among foreign lands, showing that He would not serve with their sins.

In response they separated themselves from the heathen, sought mercy, confessed their sins, and pledged to obey God's commandments. Their leaders taught them to trust that God heard their prayers and pardoned them, and to show that faith by remembering His mercies and praising His goodness. The verse illustrates the response expected whenever God's message is proclaimed, that hearing the law leads to deep repentance and a return to the Lord, as John expected.