Feast of Booths Restored

13 Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law.

14 They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel ashould live in booths during the feast of the seventh month.

15 1aSo they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and bin Jerusalem, saying, “cGo out to the hills, and bring olive branches and 2wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each aon his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at bthe Water Gate and in the square at cthe Gate of Ephraim.

17 The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in 1them. The sons of Israel ahad indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And bthere was great rejoicing.

18 aHe read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they bcelebrated the feast seven days, and on cthe eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.