Nehemiah 8:13-18

Common English Bible

The people celebrate the Festival of Booths

¹³ On the second day, the heads of the families of all the people, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered together around Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Instruction. ¹⁴ And they found written in the Instruction that the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should live in booths during the festival of the seventh month.^[a]

¹⁵ They also found that they should make the following proclamation and announce it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.”

¹⁶ So the people went out and brought them, and made booths for themselves, each on the roofs of their houses or^[b] their courtyards, in the courtyards of God’s house, in the area by the Water Gate, or in the area by the Gate of Ephraim.

¹⁷ The whole assembly of those who had returned from captivity made booths and lived in them. This was something that the people of Israel hadn’t done since the days of Joshua,^[c] Nun’s son, and there was very great rejoicing.

¹⁸ He read from God’s Instruction scroll every day, from the first until the last day of the festival.^[d] They kept the festival for seven days and held a solemn assembly on the eighth day, just as the Instruction required.