The Daily Audio Bible

8 All the people gathered together as one man in the area in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.

² On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding. ³ In the area in front of the Water Gate, he read aloud from sunrise until midday to the men, women, and those who could understand. All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

⁴ Ezra the scribe stood on a raised wood platform, which they had made for the purpose. Beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

⁵ Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people (because he was above all the people), and, as he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶ When Ezra blessed the Lord as the great God, all the people responded “Amen, Amen!” By lifting up their hands as they bowed their heads, they worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

⁷ Then Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, explained the Law to the people while the people stood in their place. ⁸ They read from the book, from the Law of God, with interpretation, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

⁹ Then Nehemiah the magistrate, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were teaching the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Stop mourning and weeping.” (This was because all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.)

¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet drink, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

¹¹ So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Hush! Because today is holy you should stop being so sorrowful.”

¹² Then all the people went to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to enjoy a great celebration because they had understood the words declared to them.

The Feast of Tabernacles

¹³ On the second day, the chiefs of the fathers’ households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to understand the words of the Law. ¹⁴ They found written in the Law where the Lord had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month, ¹⁵ and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring olive branches, along with wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and other leafy branches to make booths, as it was written.”

¹⁶ So the people went out and brought back branches and made themselves booths. Each household did so on its roof, in their yard, on the grounds of the house of God, in the area in front of the Water Gate, or in the area at the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷ All the congregation who had returned from captivity made booths and lived in them. Not since the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day had the children of Israel done so, and there was a tremendously great feast.

¹⁸ And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly as required.

The Israelites Confess Their Sins

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth, and there was dirt on them. ² The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all the foreigners and then stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ³ They stood in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day. And for another fourth, they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God. ⁴ Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani stood up on the stairs of the Levites and cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. ⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said:

“Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever! Let them bless Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ You alone are the Lord. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve them all. And the host of heaven worships You.

⁷ “You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. You gave him the name Abraham ⁸ and found his heart faithful before You. And You made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites—to give it to his seed. Indeed, You have fulfilled Your words because You are righteous.

⁹ “When You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea, ¹⁰ You enacted signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land because You knew how arrogantly they had acted against them. Thus, You made a name for Yourself, as it is this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea before them, so they might pass through the midst of the sea on dry ground, and cast their pursuers into the deep like a stone into stormy waters. ¹² By day You led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to light the way for them to go.

¹³ “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them just requirements, true laws, good statutes and commandments. ¹⁴ You also revealed to them Your Holy Sabbath and, by the hand of Moses Your servant, set in place for them the precepts, statutes, and laws. ¹⁵ You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water out of the rock for them for their thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land which You had sworn to give them.

¹⁶ “But they and our fathers acted proudly and hardened their necks and did not obey Your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to obey and were not mindful of Your wonders that You performed among them. But they hardened their necks and in their rebellion appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in kindness, and did not forsake them.

¹⁸ “Even when they had made themselves a molded calf and said, ‘This is your god that brought you out of Egypt,’ and committed terrible provocations, ¹⁹ yet You in Your great mercy did not forsake them in the wilderness: The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way they should go. ²⁰ You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing—their clothing did not wear out nor did their feet swell.

The Rights of an Apostle

9 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? ² If I am not an apostle to others, yet indeed I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³ This is my answer to those who examine me. ⁴ Do we have no right to eat and to drink? ⁵ Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?

⁷ Who goes to war at any time at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, but does not eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, but does not drink of the flock’s milk? ⁸ Do I say these things as a man? Or does the law not say the same thing also? ⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox while it treads out the grain.”^[a] Is God concerned about oxen? ¹⁰ Or does He say it completely for our sake? For our sake, no doubt, this is written so that he who plows should plow in hope, and that he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. ¹¹ If we have sown for you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your material things? ¹² If others partake of this right over you, should not we instead?

Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but suffer all things, lest we might hinder the gospel of Christ.

¹³ Do you not know that those who minister unto holy things live from the things of the temple? And do you not know that those who wait at the altar partake of the altar? ¹⁴ In the same way, the Lord has ordained that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

¹⁵ But I have used none of these rights, nor have I written these things that it should be so done to me. For it would be better for me to die than allow anyone to make my boasting void. ¹⁶ Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for the requirement is laid upon me. Yes, woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ So if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a commission. ¹⁸ What is my reward then? Truly that when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, so that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.