Neh 8:12-18 | ESV | STEP | And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing , because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Nehemiah 8:12-18

12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because ^athey had understood the words that were declared to them.

Feast of Booths Celebrated

13 On the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. 14 And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses ^bthat the people of Israel should dwell in booths ^{▼▼Or temporary shelters} during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should proclaim it and ^dpublish it in all their towns and ^ein Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring ^fbranches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each ^gon his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at ^hthe Water Gate and in the square at ⁱthe Gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day ^jthe people of Israel had not done so. And there was ^kvery great rejoicing. 18 And day by day, from the first day to the last day, ^lhe read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and ^mon the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.