(3) And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. (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.
The length of the service in reading the law implies, that this was a more than ordinary occasion. And it is remarkable that though Ezra had been in Jerusalem, at the time that this service was so solemnly observed, for many years, yet we never hear of it before. Probably the building of the wall inspired the people with greater confidence. The bringing out of the book before the people, and opening it in their view; their standing up at the reading of it, by way of testifying their great reverence for it; and Ezra's blessing the Lord, with the people's answering Amen, amen, with lifted up hands, and bowing faces; all these were delightful signs of the real devotion of the heart on this memorable occasion. Blessed be God! amidst all the decays of vital godliness in the mass of the people, still there is a reverence observed, at least in our churches, on the reading of the scriptures. And the sweet savor the people of God feel at those seasons, becomes no small testimony that a relish for divine truths still is among us. Oh! that the Lord would increase it. I beg the Reader to remark what is said, in this account, of the expounding the word, reading, and causing the people to understand the reading. This not only becomes an authority for ministers to expound the word of life, as they read it to the people, but also a lovely example. And surely God doth own, and will bless, the labors of scribes well instructed in the mysteries of the gospel, when under the Spirit's teaching they bring forth out of the treasury things new and old.