The Daily Audio Bible

8 Then all the people were brought as a single body into the plaza that was before the Water Gate. They said to Ezra the scribe, “Bring out the Torah scroll of Moses that Adonai had commanded Israel.”

² Ezra the kohen brought the Torah before the assembly, which included men and women and all who could understand what they heard. This happened on the first day of the seventh month. ³ So he read from it before the plaza in front of the Water Gate from first light until midday, in the presence of the men and women, and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the scroll of the Torah. ⁴ Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform constructed for this purpose. Standing near him at his right hand were Mattitiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah and at his left hand were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.

⁵ Ezra opened the scroll in the sight of all the people for he was above all the people. When he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶ Ezra blessed Adonai, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, amen!” as they lifted up of their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped Adonai with their faces to the ground.

⁷ The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbetai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Torah while the people were standing in their place. ⁸ They read from the Torah scroll of God, distinctly explaining^[a] it and giving insight. Thus they understood what was read.

⁹ Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the kohen-scribe, and the Levites who were teaching the people said to all the people, “Today is kadosh to Adonai your God. Do not mourn or weep!” For all the people had been weeping when they heard the words of the Torah.

¹⁰ So he said to them, “Go! Eat choice food, drink sweet drinks, and send portions to those who have nothing ready. For today is kadosh to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of Adonai is your strength.”

¹¹ Then the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Hush! For today is kadosh. Do not grieve.” ¹² So all the people departed to eat and drink, to send portions and to celebrate with great joy, because they came to understand the words that were explained to them.

Sukkot Joy

¹³ On the second day, the heads of the families along with the kohanim and the Levites gathered around Ezra to ponder the words of the Torah. ¹⁴ They found written in the Torah that Adonai had commanded through Moses that Bnei-Yisrael should dwell in sukkot during the feast of the seventh month. ¹⁵ So that they should proclaim and spread this message in all their towns and in Jerusalem saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees to make sukkot, just as it is written.” ¹⁶ So the people went out and brought branches, and made sukkot for themselves, each on their own roof, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the House of God, in the plaza before the Water Gate and in the plaza of the Ephraim Gate. ¹⁷ The entire assembly who had returned from the captivity made sukkot and dwelt in the sukkot. Since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day Bnei-Yisrael had not done so—and the joy was very great.

¹⁸ Day after day from the first day to the last day, he read from the scroll of the Torah of God. So they kept the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, according to the regulation, there was a solemn assembly.

Levites Tell Israel’s Story

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this same month, Bnei-Yisrael gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. ² The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ They stood in their place and read in the scroll of the Torah of Adonai their God for a quarter of the day; and for another quarter they were confessing and prostrating themselves before Adonai their God.

⁴ Then the Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani—stood on the platform and cried out with a loud voice to Adonai their God. ⁵ The Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up! Bless Adonai your God, from everlasting to everlasting! May Your glorious Name be blessed; may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ You alone are Adonai. You made the heavens, even the highest heaven with all its array,^[b] the earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. You give life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship You.

⁷ “You are Adonai, the God who chose Abram, brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. ⁸ You found his heart faithful before You and made the covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Jebusite and the Girgashite to his seed. You have fulfilled Your words, for You are righteous.

⁹ “You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Sea of Reeds. ¹⁰ You gave signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all the people of his land, for You knew how insolently they treated them. You made a name for Yourself which remains to this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land! But their pursuers You threw into the depths like a stone into mighty waters. ¹² You led them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illuminate for them the way they were to go.

¹³ “You descended on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just judgments, reliable laws, and good statutes and mitzvot. ¹⁴ You made known to them Your holy Shabbat and ordained for them mitzvot, statutes and Torah by the hand of Your servant Moses. ¹⁵ You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought them water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go in to possess the land that You had sworn to give them.^[c]

¹⁶ “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant. They stiffened their neck and did not obey Your mitzvot. ¹⁷ They refused to obey and did not remember Your wonders that You did among them. Instead, they became stiff-necked and in their rebellion, appointed a leader in order to return to their bondage. But You are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Therefore You did not abandon them, ¹⁸ even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt!’ or when they committed great blasphemies.

¹⁹ “Yet in Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud by day did not depart from above them, guiding them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, illuminating the way they should go. ²⁰ You also gave Your good Ruach to teach them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth and You gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years You sustained them in the desert: they lacked nothing, their garments did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Servant Leadership Wins Over All

9 Am I not free? Am I not an emissary? Have I not seen Yeshua our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? ² If to others I am not an emissary, at least I am to you—for you are the seal of my office of emissary in the Lord.

³ My defense to those who examine me is this. ⁴ Don’t we have the right to food and drink? ⁵ Don’t we have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other emissaries and the Lord’s brothers and Kefa? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to not work? ⁷ What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink its milk?

⁸ I don’t say these things merely as a man, do I? Doesn’t Torah also say these things? ⁹ For it is written in the Torah of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.”^[a] Is it the oxen that concern God, ¹⁰ or is He speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because the one plowing ought to plow in hope and the one threshing in hope of a share in the crop. ¹¹ If we sowed spiritual things into you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹² If others have a share in this claim over you, shouldn’t we even more?

Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we put up with all things so that we cause no hindrance to the Good News of Messiah. ¹³ Don’t you know that those who perform the holy services eat from the Temple, and those who wait on the altar receive a share at the altar? ^{[b] 14} So also the Lord ordered those who proclaim the Good News to get their living from the Good News.

¹⁵ But I have used none of these things, and I am not writing these things so it will happen this way in my case—for I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my reason to boast. ¹⁶ For if I proclaim the Good News, I have no reason to boast—for pressure is put on me and woe to me if I don’t proclaim the Good News! ¹⁷ For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have been entrusted with a commission. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? That when I preach, I may present the Good News free of charge, not making use of my right^[c] in the Good News.