Bible Strands
Nehemiah 8:1
At that time all the people gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — All the people assembled at the square before the Water Gate and requested Ezra the scribe to produce the Book of the Law of Moses. This gathering occurred at a specific moment when the community united to access the text the LORD had commanded for Israel.
The words — The Hebrew וַ/יֵּאָסְפ֤וּ (va/i.ye.'a.se) literally means "and they gathered," denoting the collective action described in the verse. The phrase כָּל־הָ/עָם (khol-ha/'am) translates directly to "all the people," specifying the complete scope of those present.
The thread — Ezra’s designation as a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses links this event to his documented arrival from Babylon in Ezra 7:6. The Water Gate serves as a recurring assembly location, appearing in Nehemiah 3:26 during wall repairs and echoing the covenant renewal pattern established when the Law was found in 2 Chronicles 34:15.
Why it lands — The text records a public demand for the commanded Law and requires the community to gather for direct exposure to it. It asks readers to acknowledge that covenant obedience begins with the physical gathering around the written instruction rather than abstract belief.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
Cross-references
- Ezra 7:6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
- 2 Chronicles 34:15 And Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD!” And he gave it to Shaphan.
- Nehemiah 3:26 and the temple servants living on the hill of Ophel made repairs opposite the Water Gate toward the east and the tower that juts out.
- Matthew 13:52 Then He told them, “For this reason, every scribe who has been discipled in the kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
- Ezra 3:1 By the seventh month, the Israelites had settled in their towns, and the people assembled as one man in Jerusalem.
- Ezra 7:11 This is the text of the letter King Artaxerxes had given to Ezra the priest and scribe, an expert in the commandments and statutes of the LORD to Israel:
- Judges 20:1 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.
- Judges 20:8 Then all the people stood as one man and said, “Not one of us will return to his tent or to his house.
- Nehemiah 8:4 Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for this occasion. At his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and at his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
- Nehemiah 8:16 And the people went out, brought back branches, and made booths on their own rooftops, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God, and in the squares by the Water Gate and by the Gate of Ephraim.