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Old Testament Reading - Feast of Booths

⁹ Then Nehemiah, who was the governor^a, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, “This day is holy to Yahweh your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.

¹⁴They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by the hand of Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month, ¹⁵and that they should make the report heard and make a proclamation of it pass throughout all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches^f, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” ¹⁶So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was exceedingly great gladness. ¹⁸And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the legal judgment.

1. Heb. Tirshatha, a Persian title
2. Lit. oil tree, species unknown