Expositor's Bible Commentary - Nehemiah 8:9-18
THE JOY OF THE LORDNehemiah 8:9-18"ALL the people wept when they heard the words of the law." Was it for this mournful end that Ezra had studied the sacred law and guarded it through the long years of political unrest, until at length he was able to make it known with all the pomp and circumstance of a national festival? Evidently the leaders of the people had expected no such result. But disappointing as it was, it might have been worse. The reading might have been listened to with... read more
Expositor's Bible Commentary - Nehemiah 8:1-8
THE LAWNehemiah 8:1-8THE fragmentary nature of the chronicler’s work is nowhere more apparent than in that portion of it which treats of the events immediately following on the completion of the fortifications of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 7:1-73 we have a continuation of the governor’s personal narrative of his work, describing how the watch was organised after the walls had been built and the gates set up. {Nehemiah 7:1-3} This is followed by a remark on the sparseness of the city population,... read more