The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it happened in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

And it happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence before.

And the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singers, and some of the people, and the temple slaves, and all Israel, lived in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities.

And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.

And they found written in the Law which Jehovah had commanded by Moses, that the sons of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month,

And in the twenty-fourth day of this month, the sons of Israel were gathered with fasting and with sackcloth, and with earth upon them.