And the servants of the priests dwelling on Ophel [the hill south of the temple] repaired to opposite the Water Gate on the east and the projecting tower.
Now the first [of the returned exiles] to dwell again in their possessions in the cities of Israel were the priests, Levites, and the Nethinim [the temple servants].
And he built an outer wall to the City of David west of Gihon in the valley, to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and ran it around Ophel, raising it to a very great height; and he put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.
And the rest of the people–the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, Nethinim [temple servants], and all they who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who had knowledge and understanding–
At the Fountain Gate they went up straight ahead by the stairs of the City of David at the wall's ascent above David's house to the Water Gate on the east.
THEN ALL the people gathered together as one man in the broad place before the Water Gate; and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel.
So the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each on the roof of his house and in their courts and the courts of God's house and in the squares of the Water Gate and the Gate of Ephraim.
He read from it, facing the broad place before the Water Gate, from early morning until noon, in the presence of the men and women and those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
For the palace shall be forsaken, the populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watchtower shall become dens [for wild animals] endlessly, a joy for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks,