Reading for December 17th

Read Nehemiah 8.13-18. In 8.13-18: The community keeps the Festival of Booths. One of the specified holy times of the seventh month was the Festival of Booths (Lev 23.33-43), slated to be observed for a week beginning on the fifteenth day of the month. Along with the celebration of the deliverance from Egypt that is the prime focus of the festival, this account continues the reading, and resumably explanation, of the law. In verse 13: On the second day keeps the chronology of 8.2, even though it technically doesnotobeserve the festival specifications of the law. This may be an indication that the precise limits of the festival had not been set in the Persian period. In place of the community as a whole, this gathering consists only of the leadership. In verse 17: All the assembly ... made booths: The whole community is involved. From the days of Jeshua is a reference to the period of conquest and Israel's inheritance of the land. The completion of the city walls and the reformation of the community are parallel to Israel's beginnings. Comments or Questions..