Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 8:2
And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
2. Ezra the priest ] cf. Ezr 7:1; Ezr 7:11.
the law ] i.e. the book of the law. Cf. 2Co 3:14 ‘the old covenant’ for ‘the book of the old covenant.’ The word ‘Torah’ is here used in the sense, which afterwards became universal, of the written ‘Law.’
all that could hear with understanding ] lit. ‘every one of intelligence to hear and understand,’ i.e. all except quite children, cf. Neh 10:28 ‘all , their wives and their sons and their daughters, every one that had knowledge and understanding.’ The Vulgate ‘sapientium’ gives a wrong idea.
upon the first day of the seventh month ] In the Priestly Laws the first day of the month Tisri was ‘the Feast of Trumpets’ (see Lev 23:23-25; Num 29:1-6), a day of ‘holy convocation,’ cf. Neh 8:9; see Ezr 3:1.
Were the people assembled to celebrate this festival, or were the people summoned on the first day of the month, because the new-moon days were always regarded as sacred in Palestine? Considering that the people were even uninstructed how to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles according to the Law ( Neh 8:13-15), it is not likely that they would have been acquainted with the ‘feast of trumpets’ before the time of the reading of the Law. It is therefore most probable that the special holiness of the day lay in its being the new-moon day of the month in which occurred not only the change of year according to the autumn era but also the most popular of the Israelite festivals, ‘the feast of tabernacles.’ The observance of the new-moon seems to have been universal among Oriental nations in ancient times. Among the Israelites, it was at all times strictly maintained, cf. 1Sa 20:5; 2Ki 4:23; Isa 1:13; Isa 66:23; Eze 26:1; Eze 46:1; Hos 2:11; Amo 8:5; Hag 1:1; Jdt 8:6 ; Col 2:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Upon the first day of the seventh month – The day of the Feast of Trumpets (see the margin reference note). The gathering together of the people, spoken of in Neh 8:1, was probably to observe this feast.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. All that could hear with understanding] Infants, idiots, and children not likely to receive instruction, were not permitted to attend this meeting; nor should any such, in any place, be ever brought to the house of God, if it can be avoided: yet, rather than a poor mother should be deprived of the ordinances of God, let her come with her child in her arms; and although it be inconvenient to the congregation, and to some ministers, to hear a child cry, it is cruel to exclude the mother on this account, who, having no person to take care of her child while absent, must bring it with her, or be totally deprived of the ordinances of the Christian Church.
Upon the first day of the seventh month.] This was the first day of what was called the civil year; and on it was the feast of trumpets, the year being ushered in by the sound of these instruments.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ezra the priest came twelve or thirteen years before Nehemiah to Jerusalem; and either tarried there, or went back to Babylon, being forced to do so by the kings command, or indispensable occasions, and then returned again with Nehemiah.
All that could hear with understanding, i.e. and such children as were come to years of understanding.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation,…. Having a perfect copy of it, which the people knew, and therefore desired him to bring it; he brought it either out of his own case or chest, or out of the temple where it was laid up; some restrain this to the book of Deuteronomy; this he produced in sight of the whole assembly:
both of men and women; adult persons of each sex, who met promiscuously; though Grotius thinks the women had a separate place:
and all that could hear with understanding; all under age, who yet were capable of hearing the law read to some advantage to them:
upon the first day of the seventh month; the month Tisri, answering to part of September and October; this was a high day, for not only the first of every month was a festival, but the first of the seventh month was the feast of blowing of trumpets, Le 23:24, and besides, this was New Year’s day, the first day of their civil year, as the first of Nisan was of their ecclesiastical year, and was of greater antiquity than that; and so Jarchi says, this was the first day of the year; to which may be added, that this was the day on which the altar was first set up, on the Jews’ return from captivity, Ezr 3:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding.Men, women, and children who had reached years of discretion.
Upon the first day of the seventh month.As the seventh was the most important month, in a religious sense, so the first day, the Feast of Trumpets, was the most important new moon (Lev. 23:24).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Ezra the priest He was descended from Aaron, and was therefore a priest, as well as a most distinguished scribe. See note on Ezr 7:1.
All that could hear with understanding More literally, all having understanding to hear; that is, all children and young persons old enough to listen intelligently to the reading and exposition of the law.
The first day of the seventh month The day for the feast of trumpets.
Lev 23:24. This month bore the names Ethanim and Tisri, and corresponded nearly with our October. It was also the first month of the civil year, so that its first was new year’s day. The tenth of this month was the day of atonement, and on the fifteenth began the feast of tabernacles.
Lev 23:27; Lev 23:34.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 8:2. Ezra the priest, &c. This Ezra, without all controversy, was the same who came from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. After the death of Zerubbabel, the whole administration devolved upon him; but as his commission lasted but twelve years, upon its expiration Nehemiah succeeded to the government; and we hear no more of Ezra, until he is here called upon to read and expound the law to the people. Whether, as some think, he returned to Babylon, to give the people an account of the affairs of the province of Judea, or whether in this intermediate time he employed himself in some retirement upon the great work of preparing a new and correct edition of the Holy Scriptures, which we are generally supposed to owe to his care, is not certain. The pulpit upon which he was raised, Neh 8:4 must have been large, sufficient to contain fourteen people at once, and from this eminence they read and explained the law, Neh 8:8. For the people, having for some time been accustomed to the Chaldee language, had partly lost the knowledge of the Hebrew; so that there was a necessity for having the law explained to them in the Chaldee tongue. And this was the origin of the institution of the Targums or Chaldee paraphrases, as it is also supposed to have been of the synagogue worship. See Univ. Hist. vol. 10: b. 2 p. 220.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Neh 8:2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
Ver. 2. And Ezra the priest brought the law ] The commandment (he knew well) was a lamp, and the law a light; and reproofs of instruction the way of life, Pro 6:23 . The Greeks call the law , quasi , the standing mind of God (Plato in Cratylo). And if Demosthenes could say of men’s laws, that they were the invention of God; if Xenophon could say of the Persian laws, that they kept the people even from coveting any wickedness; if Cicero durst say of the Roman laws, that they far excelled and exceeded all the learned libraries of the philosophers, both in weight and worth; how much more may all this and more be said of this perfect law of God, the book whereof was here brought forth by Ezra, and read and expounded in the ears of all the people! , ..
Before the congregation both of men and women
And all that can hear with understanding
Upon the first day of the seventh month
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezra the priest. It was the priest’s duty at this and at all times to teach the people the Word of God. See note on Deu 17:11; Deu 33:10; and compare Mal 2:7.
congregation = assembly or muster.
upon the first day, &c. This was according to the requirement of Deu 31:9-12, every seventh year. Compare Lev 23:23 – Neh 2:5).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
seventh month
i.e. October; Neh 8:2; Neh 8:14.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
priest: Deu 17:18, Deu 31:9, Deu 31:10, Mal 2:7
congregation: Deu 31:11-13, 2Ch 17:7-9, Act 15:21
could hear with understanding: Heb. understood in hearing, Isa 28:9
the first: Lev 23:24, Num 29:1
Reciprocal: Lev 10:11 – General Deu 29:10 – General Jos 8:34 – he read Jos 8:35 – women 2Ch 34:30 – he read Ezr 3:1 – the seventh Ezr 7:1 – Ezra Neh 8:9 – This day Neh 9:1 – of this month Neh 10:28 – every one Act 5:14 – multitudes Jam 1:19 – let
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 8:2. Upon the first day of the seventh month This was the feast of trumpets, which is called a sabbath, and on which they were to have a holy convocation, Lev 23:24. And it was on this day the altar was set up, after their return from captivity; in remembrance of which they had probably kept it ever since, with more than ordinary solemnity.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all {b} that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
(b) Who had age and discretion to understand.