Neh 8:5-8 | KD | STEP | Ezra, standing on the raised platform, was above the assembled people (he was כּל־העם מעל). When he opened the book, it was “in the sight of all the people,” so that all could see his action; and “all the people stood up” (עמדוּ). It cannot be shown from the O.T. that it had been from the days of Moses a custom with the Israelites to stand at the reading of the law, as the Rabbis assert; comp. Vitringa, de Synag. vet. p. 167.

‏ Nehemiah 8:5-8

Ezra, standing on the raised platform, was above the assembled people (he was כּל־העם מעל). When he opened the book, it was “in the sight of all the people,” so that all could see his action; and “all the people stood up” (עמדוּ). It cannot be shown from the O.T. that it had been from the days of Moses a custom with the Israelites to stand at the reading of the law, as the Rabbis assert; comp. Vitringa, de Synag. vet. p. 167. Neh 8:6

Ezra began by blessing the Lord, the great God, perhaps with a sentence of thanksgiving, as David did, 1Ch 29:10, but scarcely by using a whole psalm, as in 1Ch 16:8. To this thanksgiving the people answered Amen, Amen (comp. 1Ch 16:36), lifting up their hands (ידיהם בּמעל, with lifting up of their hands; the form מעל occurring only here), and worshipping the Lord, bowing down towards the ground. Neh 8:7

And Jeshua, Bani, etc., the Levites, expounded the law to the people (הבין, to cause to understand, here to instruct, by expounding the law). The ו copulative before הלויּם must certainly have been inserted in the text by a clerical error; for the previously named thirteen (or fourteen) persons are Levites, of whom Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, and Hodijah occur again, Neh 9:4-5. The names Jeshua, Sherebiah, Shabtai, and Jozabad are also met with Neh 12:14; Neh 11:16, but belong in these latter passages to other individuals who were heads of classes of Levites. Neh 8:8 “And they (the Levites) read in (out of) the book of the law of God, explained and gave the sense; and they (the assembled auditors) were attentive to the reading.” The Rabbis understand מפרשׁ = the Chaldee מפרשׁ, of a rendering of the law into the vulgar tongue, i.e., a paraphrase in the Chaldee language for those who were not acquainted with the ancient Hebrew. But this cannot be shown to be the meaning of פרשׁ, this word being used in the Targums for the Hebrew נקב (קבב), e.g., Lev 24:16, and for בּאר, Deu 1:5. It is more correct to suppose a paraphrastic exposition and application of the law (Pfeiffer, dubia vex. p. 480), but not “a distinct recitation according to appointed rules” (Gusset. and Bertheau). שׂום is infin. abs. instead of the temp. finit.: and gave the sense, made the law comprehensible to the hearers. במּקרא ויּבינוּ, not with older interpreters, Luther (“so that what was read was understood”), and de Wette, “and they (the Levites) made what was read comprehensible,” which would be a mere tautology, but with the lxx, Vulgate, and others, “and they (the hearers) attended to the reading,” or, ”obtained an understanding of what was read” (בּ הבין, like Neh 8:12, Dan 9:23; Dan 10:11). Vitringa (de syn. vet. p. 420) already gives the correct meaning: de doctoribus narratur, quod legerint et dederint intellectum, de autitoribus, quod lectum intellexerint. The manner of proceeding with this reading is not quite clear. According to Neh 8:5-8, the Levites alone seem to have read to the people out of the book of the law, and to have explained what they read to their auditors; while according to Neh 8:3, Ezra read to the assembled people, and the ears of all were attentive to the book of the law, while we are told in Neh 8:5 that Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. If, however, we regard Neh 8:4-8 as only a more detailed description of what is related Neh 8:2, Neh 8:3, it is obvious that both Ezra and the thirteen Levites mentioned in Neh 8:7 read out of the law. Hence the occurrence may well have taken place as follows: Ezra first read a section of the law, and the Levites then expounded to the people the portion just read; the only point still doubtful being whether the thirteen (fourteen) Levites expounded in succession, or whether they all did this at the same time to different groups of people.