Ezra read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day to the last. They observed the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly as was required.

For they were under royal orders which determined their activity day by day.

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in just fifty-two days.

So I came to Jerusalem. When I had been there for three days,

These all served in the days of Joiakim son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priestly scribe.

So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. Everyone experienced very great joy.

In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions.

So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them both day and night.

Then the Levites quieted all the people saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy. Do not grieve.”

Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and Jedaiah. These were the leaders of the priests and their colleagues in the days of Jeshua.

Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

In those days the aristocrats of Judah repeatedly sent letters to Tobiah, and responses from Tobiah were repeatedly coming to them.

In the days of Joiakim, these were the priests who were leaders of the families: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

You guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night to illumine for them the path they were to travel.

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanks to God.

So in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, all Israel was contributing the portions for the singers and gatekeepers, according to the daily need. They also set aside the portion for the Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron.

On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

The descendants of Levi were recorded in the Book of the Chronicles as heads of families up to the days of Johanan son of Eliashib.

So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?