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Nehemiah 8:4-8

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

4. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, [and] Meshullam. 5. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: 6. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with [their] faces to the ground. 7. Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people [stood] in their place. 8. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused [them] to understand the reading.

Nehemiah 8:4-8 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Nehemiah 8:4

Theological / Devotional

A pulpit of wood. Compare the word “pillar” in 2 Kings 11:14 and 23:3, where, however, the term used is ‘ammud, “stand.” Here, the Hebrew migdal, generally meaning “tower,” is used. It must have been a high scaffold, if the term “tower” could be used to describe it; hence the translation “pulpit” is warranted, with the understanding that it was a high “pulpit,” so that all the people could easily see and hear Ezra and his companions.

Beside him stood. Six persons, probably priests, stood on Ezra’s right, and seven on his left. In the Apocryphal book of 1 Esdras seven are mentioned as standing on his right hand also, the name Azarias being inserted between Anaiah and Urijah. Urijah is perhaps the father of the Meremoth of Nehemiah 3:4, 21; Maaseiah, the father of the Azariah of Nehemiah 3:23; Pedaiah, the individual named in Nehemiah 3:25; the Azariah to be inserted, if we accept the record in 1 Esdras, may be the same as the one named in Nehemiah 3:23; while a Meshullam occurs in Nehemiah 3:4, 6; and a Malchiah in Nehemiah 3:11, 14, 31.

By SdaBc