Commentaria in II Esdrae (Nehemiam)
Chapter 8. Synopsis of the Chapter
Esdras, having convoked all the people on the first day of the seventh month, reads out and explains to them the law of God. He does the same on the fifteenth day of the month for eight days at the feast of Tabernacles, which is celebrated by all with great solemnity.
1. And the seventh month was come: and the children of Israel were in their cities. And all the people were gathered together as one man, to the street which is before the water gate: and they spoke to Esdras the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. 2. Then Esdras the priest brought the law before the multitude of men and women, and all those that could understand, on the first day of the seventh month. 3. And he read it plainly in the street that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday, before the men and the women and all that could understand: and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book. 4. And Esdras the scribe stood upon a step of wood, which he had made to speak upon: and there stood by him Mathathias, and Semeia, and Ania, and Uria, and Helcia, and Maasia, on his right hand; and on the left, Phadaia, Misael, and Melchia, and Hasum, and Hasbadana, Zacharia, and Mosollam. 5. And Esdras opened the book before all the people: for he was above all the people; and when he had opened it, all the people stood. 6. And Esdras blessed the Lord the great God, and all the people answered: Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands; and they bowed down, and adored God with their faces to the ground. 7. Now Josue, and Bani, and Serebia, Jamin, Accub, Septhai, Odia, Maasia, Celita, Azarias, Josabed, Hanan, Phalaia, Levites, made silence among the people to hear the law: and the people stood in their place. 8. And they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and plainly to be understood: and they understood when it was read. 9. And Nehemias (he is Athersatha) and Esdras the priest and scribe, and the Levites who interpreted to all the people, said: This day is holy to the Lord our God, do not mourn, and do not weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. 10. And he said to them: Go, eat fat things, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to them that have not prepared for themselves; because it is the holy day of the Lord, and be not sad: for the joy of the Lord is our strength. 11. And the Levites stilled all the people, saying: Hold your peace, for the day is holy, and be not grieved. 12. So all the people went to eat and drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth: because they had understood the words that he had taught them. 13. And on the second day the heads of the families of all the people, the priests and the Levites, were gathered together to Esdras the scribe, that he might interpret to them the words of the law. 14. And they found written in the law, that the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in tabernacles on the solemn day in the seventh month: 15. and that they should publish and proclaim a voice in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying: Go forth to the mount, and bring branches of olive, and branches of the most beautiful tree, branches of myrtle, and branches of palms, and branches of every thick tree, to make tabernacles, as it is written. 16. And the people went forth, and brought. And they made themselves tabernacles, every man on the top of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. 17. So all the assembly of them that were returned from the captivity made tabernacles, and dwelt in the tabernacles: for the children of Israel had not done in such manner from the days of Josue the son of Nun until that day. And there was exceeding great joy. 18. And he read in the book of the law of God, day by day, from the first day to the last day, and they kept the solemnity seven days, and on the eighth day the assembly, according to the manner.
1. And the seventh month was come.—These things seem to have been done in the seventh year of Artaxerxes under Esdras, who, sent by him, returned to Jerusalem. Hence, as the list of the preceding chapter of Nehemias is the same as the list of Esdras chapter 2, so what is said in this chapter 8 seems to be the same as what Esdras narrated in chapter 2, as is clear to one comparing the two. For in both the seventh month is named, Esdras, the feast of Tabernacles, etc. Nor is there doubt that Esdras the scribe performed his office and zeal, as soon as in the seventh year of Artaxerxes he returned to Jerusalem, to teach the law to the people who in the captivity had forgotten it. For to this he was sent by Artaxerxes, who said, “that he may freely teach the ignorant,” Esdras chapter 7, verse 15, as Zorobabel and Jesus were sent to rebuild the temple, and Nehemias to restore the walls and the city. Add: Esdras does not seem to have lived to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, in which Nehemias restored the walls; for then he would have been 147 years old (which was unusual in that age): for so many years flowed by from the last year of Sedecias, in which Saraias the father of Esdras was killed, to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. But this reasoning is not solid: for that Esdras lived in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes is clear from chapter 12, verses 33 and 35, where it is said that Esdras the scribe was present at the dedication of the city made by Nehemias; although Cajetan thinks that the Esdras there is another, different from this one of ours. Wherefore some think that these things happened under Nehemias in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, so that Esdras returned with him a third time to Jerusalem, and was very old, namely 147 years old.
4. And Esdras stood upon a step of wood—Hebrew: upon a wooden tower, that is, upon a platform, which rose from the ground to a height like a little tower.
5. And all the people stood—both to show reverence to the law of God by standing, and that standing with ears attentive they might more easily take in Esdras’s reading. Hence Christians also rise at the Gospel out of reverence.
8. And they read (both Esdras, and his companions, who relieved Esdras, being old and weary, in the reading; but where any difficulty occurred, Esdras explained it) in the book of the law (in the Pentateuch, and especially in Deuteronomy, where the whole law is repeated and iterated) distinctly (so that all might hear every part perfectly. The Septuagint renders: and he distinguished in the knowledge of the Lord, that is, he read the law distinctly and explained it by knowledge received from the Lord. Wrongly therefore do some twist this to the restoration of the books burnt by the Chaldeans, as if Esdras restored them from memory by knowledge infused by God): and plainly to be understood.—The Hebrew: by setting (that is, giving) understanding; as if to say: Esdras in the course of reading explained, where needed, in Syriac or Chaldee, what was read in Hebrew from Deuteronomy; and moreover interpreted by paraphrase the sentences that occurred, as is said in verse 13. For the people in Babylon had corrupted their Hebrew tongue and mixed it with Chaldee; so they did not sufficiently grasp pure Hebrew. Esdras therefore interpreted what was said in Hebrew in the Syriac language, which was now proper and native to the returning people.
9. And Nehemias (he is Athersatha) said.—Nehemias is called Athersatha first from the root yarash, which is “he inherited,” as if to say: Athersatha, that is, Thou hast inherited, because thou alone before all hast possessed the inheritance of the fathers, who hast restored the destroyed city, girded it with walls, and handed it over safe to thy posterity to possess. So Villalpandus: or second, from the word for wine, a taster of the king’s wine; for he was cupbearer. So Marinus in his Lexicon. Third, Athersatha agrees closely with Artachsatha, that is, Artaxerxes. For the king seems to have given Nehemias the power of his own name; or at least he himself, as dearest to the king, was addressed by the courtiers in the name of the king himself. So Villalpandus, part 1 On the Temple, book 3, chapter 4.
Moreover what Lyranus says seems fabulous, that “Athersatha” in Hebrew is the same as “released,” and that Nehemias is so called because he was released by the sages of the Hebrews, and it was dispensed with him that he might drink the wine of a Gentile king, namely Artaxerxes, whose cupbearer Athersatha was; for Athersatha is not a Hebrew name, but Chaldean, and given by the Chaldeans.
For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law—because they saw the threats of the law, namely disasters of every kind that had befallen them for its transgression, and that in these they were still for the most part continuing from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, which was a space of 147 years.