And the seventh month came: and the children of Israel were in their cities. And all the people were gathered together as one man to the street which is before the water gate: and they spoke to Esdras the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
And the second choir of them that gave thanks went on the opposite side. And I after them; and the half of the people upon the wall, and upon the tower of the furnaces, even to the broad wall,
And he read it plainly in the street that was before the water gate, from the morning until midday, before the men, and the women, and all those that could understand: and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book.
After this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, from the entering in of the fish gate round about to Ophel, and raised it up to a great height. And he appointed captains of the army in all the fenced cities of Juda.
And the rest of the people, priests, Levites, porters, and singing men, Nathinites, and all that had separated themselves from the people of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters.
And the people went forth, and brought. And they made themselves tabernacles every man on the top of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever: a joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks,