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Now when they kept the feast of tabernacles in the seventh month
1
and almost all the people were come together to it, they went up to the
open part of the temple, to the gate which looked eastward, and desired
of Esdras that the laws of Moses might be read to them. Accordingly, he
stood in the midst of the multitude and read them; and this he did from
morning to noon. Now, by hearing the laws read to them, they were instructed
to be righteous men for the present and for the future; but as for their
past offenses, they were displeased at themselves, and proceeded to shed
tears on their account, as considering with themselves that if they had
kept the law, they had endured none of these miseries which they had experienced.
But when Esdras saw them in that disposition, he bade them go home, and
not weep, for that it was a festival, and that they ought not to weep thereon,
for that it was not lawful so to do.
2
He exhorted them rather to proceed immediately to feasting, and to do what
was suitable to a feast, and what was agreeable to a day of joy; but to
let their repentance and sorrow for their former sins be a security and
a guard to them, that they fell no more into the like offenses. So upon
Esdras's exhortation they began to feast; and when they had so done for
eight days, in their tabernacles, they departed to their own homes, singing
hymns to God, and returning thanks to Esdras for his reformation of what
corruptions had been introduced into their settlement. So it came to pass,
that after he had obtained this reputation among the people, he died an
old man, and was buried in a magnificent manner at Jerusalem. About the
same time it happened also that Joacim, the high priest, died; and his
son Eliasib succeeded in the high priesthood.