Deuteronomy 31:10-12

31:10 He ¹  commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, ²  at the Feast of Temporary Shelters, ³  31:11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, you must read this law before them ⁴  within their hearing. 31:12 Gather the people – men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages – so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law.

Nehemiah 8:2-3

8:2 So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which included men and women and all those able to understand what they heard. (This happened on the first day of the seventh month.) 8:3 So he read it before the plaza in front of the Water Gate from dawn till noon ⁵  before the men and women and those children who could understand. ⁶  All the people were eager to hear ⁷  the book of the law.

Nehemiah 9:3

9:3 For one-fourth of the day they stood in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God, and for another fourth they were confessing their sins ⁸  and worshiping the LORD their God.

Nehemiah 13:1

Further Reforms by Nehemiah

13:1 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing ⁹  of the people. They found ¹⁰  written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God,

[31:10]  ¹ tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:10]  ² tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.

[31:10]  ³ tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.

[31:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “before all Israel.”

[8:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the light till the noon of the day.”

[8:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “all who could hear with understanding.” The word “children” is understood to be implied here by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, TEV, NLT).

[8:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the ears of all the people were toward.”

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “confessing.” The words “their sins” are not present in the Hebrew text of v. 3, but are clearly implied here because they are explicitly stated in v. 2.

[13:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “ears.”

[13:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.