Nehemiah 8:9 - The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann

And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, he being the governor of Judea under appointment from the Persian king, and Ezra, the priest, the scribe, the learned doctor of priestly descent, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord, your God; mourn not nor weep, they were to give no evidence of mourning, deeply as they were affected by the reading, for this would have disturbed the holiness of the day. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law, overcome with the sense of their national sins, as brought out by the reading of the commands and prohibitions of the Lord.