¹² Gather the people – men, women, dependents, and the resident foreigners within your city gates – so that they may listen and learn to fear^(A) the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law.

² On the first day of the seventh month,^(A) the priest Ezra^(B) brought the law^(C) before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding. ³ While he was facing the square in front of the Water Gate,^(D) he read out of it from daybreak until noon before the men, the women, and those who could understand. All the people listened attentively^[a] to the book of the law.^(E)

Nehemiah’s Further Reforms

13 At that time^(A) the book of Moses^(B) was read publicly to^[a] the people.^(C) The command was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite^(D) should ever enter the assembly of God,^(E)