Now I gathered them together at the river that runs to Ahava, where we camped for three days. I observed the people and the priests, and I did not find any Levites there.

So we came to Jerusalem and remained there for three days.

and that whoever would not come within three days, by order of the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions and property would be forfeited and he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the twentieth [day] of the ninth month, and all the people sat in the open square in front of the house of God, trembling because of [the seriousness of] this matter and because of the heavy rain.