Deuteronomy 31:10-13

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. 31:13 Then their children, who have not known this law, ⁵  will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Deuteronomy 31:2

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ⁶  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’

Deuteronomy 17:9

17:9 You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict.

Nehemiah 8:1-8

8:1 all the people gathered together ⁷  in the plaza which was in front of the Water Gate. They asked ⁸  Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had commanded Israel. 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 ⁹  before the men and women and those children who could understand. ¹⁰  All the people were eager to hear ¹¹  the book of the law.

8:4 Ezra the scribe stood on a towering wooden platform ¹²  constructed for this purpose. Standing near him on his right were Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Masseiah. On his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. 8:5 Ezra opened the book in plain view ¹³  of all the people, for he was elevated above all the people. When he opened the book, ¹⁴  all the people stood up. 8:6 Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people replied “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

8:7 Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah – all of whom were Levites ¹⁵  – were teaching the people the law, as the people remained standing. 8:8 They read from the book of God’s law, explaining it ¹⁶  and imparting insight. Thus the people ¹⁷  gained understanding from what was read.

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 ¹⁸  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 ¹⁹  of the people. They found ²⁰  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.”

[31:13]  ⁵ tn The phrase “this law” is not in the Hebrew text, but English style requires an object for the verb here. Other translations also supply the object which is otherwise implicit (cf. NIV “who do not know this law”; TEV “who have never heard the Law of the Lord your God”).

[31:2]  ⁶ tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “like one man.”

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “said [to].”

[8:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “from the light till the noon of the day.”

[8:3]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the ears of all the people were toward.”

[8:4]  ¹² tn Heb “a tower of wood.”

[8:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the eyes.”

[8:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the book) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:7]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads “and the Levites.” The conjunction (“and”) should be deleted, following the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate. That the vav (ו) of the MT is the vav explicativum (“even the Levites”) is unlikely here.

[8:8]  ¹⁶ tn The exact meaning of the pual participle מְפֹרָשׁ (mÿforash) in this verse is uncertain. The basic sense of the Hebrew word seems to be “to make distinct.” The word may also have the sense of “to divide in parts,” “to interpret,” or “to translate.” The context of Neh 8:8 does not decisively clarify how the participle is to be understood here. It probably refers to the role of the Levites as those who explained or interpreted the portions of biblical text that had been publicly read on this occasion. A different option, however, is suggested by the translation distincte (“distinctly”) of the Vulgate (cf. KJV, ASV). If the Hebrew word means “distinctly” here, it would imply that the readers paid particular attention to such things as word-grouping and pronunciation so as to be sure that the listeners had every opportunity to understand the message that was being read. Yet another view is found in the Talmud, which understands translation of the Hebrew text into Aramaic to be what is in view here. The following explanation of Neh 8:8 is found in b. Megillah 3a: “‘And they read in the book, in the law of God’: this indicates the [Hebrew] text; ‘with an interpretation’: this indicates the targum; ‘and they gave the sense’: this indicates the verse stops; ‘and caused them to understand the reading’: this indicates the accentuation, or, according to another version, the Masoretic notes.” However, this ancient rabbinic view that the origins of the Targum are found in Neh 8:8 is debatable. It is not clear that the practice of paraphrasing the Hebrew biblical text into Aramaic in order to accommodate the needs of those Jews who were not at home in the Hebrew language developed this early. The translation of מְפֹרָשׁ adopted above (i.e., “explaining it”) understands the word to have in mind an explanatory function (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT) rather than one of translation.

[8:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:3]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “ears.”

[13:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.