In Nehemiah, chapter eight, verse one, begins with the law read and explained. The following chapters, eight through ten, describe one of the greatest revivals in the Old Testament and illustrate several fundamental principles for spiritual renewal and revival. Renewal and revival come only from God, for they meditate through God’s Word, as in verses one to eight, and the prayer, in verse six. Then confession, as in chapter nine, a broken and contrite heart, as in verse nine, a turning from the sinful ways and behavior of contemporary society, as in Nehemiah nine, verse two, and a renewed commitment to walk in God’s will and to make God’s Word the rule for grateful living in Nehemiah ten, verse twenty-nine.
In the court of the Gentiles, which was possibly the street the people were gathering at the water gate at the beginning of this theme verse, Ezra, without all doubt, is the same person who came from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes. Many thought he had been in Babylon since his first coming into Judah and returned. Beholding, doubtless, with great joy, the wall of Jerusalem built as before he had seen the temple finished. They called to mind that place in Deuteronomy thirty-one, verses ten through eleven, where God requires the law to be read publicly every seventh year, in the feast of Tabernacles, which was appointed to keep about the middle of the month. This office, no doubt, Ezra was ready to perform, but such was the forward zeal of the people at this time that they prevented him by their pious entreaties, requesting that he read the law before that feast began. Ezra appears in this book for the first time and has probably been at the court for twelve years. The unanimity rather than the number is emphatic.