Bible Strands
Nehemiah 8:15
and that they should proclaim this message and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The post-exilic leadership issues a command to announce the Feast of Booths throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding towns. This directive follows the public reading of the Law and immediately precedes the community's physical preparation of shelters.
The words — יַשְׁמִיעוּ (yashmi'u) translates as "they will make proclamation," paired with קֹל (kol), meaning "a voice" or "message." The phrasing emphasizes broadcasting the order publicly across all cities rather than restricting it to a single assembly.
The thread — The mandate to proclaim the appointed feast is established in Leviticus 23:4, while the gathering of foliage for shelters is recorded in Leviticus 23:40. The broader requirement for three annual pilgrimages is outlined in Deuteronomy 16:16.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to move from hearing written instruction to executing communal obedience in specific geographic locations. It demands that the Law be actively announced and physically enacted across the entire community.
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 that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 23:40 On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook. And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
- Leviticus 23:4 These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.
- Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
- Genesis 8:11 And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
- Judges 9:48 he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”
- Matthew 21:1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent out two disciples,
- John 12:13 They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
- Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.