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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
8:9-12 The People Are to Be Joyful. Though sorrow for sin was a positive response, joy at renewed relationship with God was the teaching's ultimate purpose.
8:9 Nehemiah and Ezra together decide that this holy day (Lev. 23:24) should be one of joy, though the reading has led many to sense the need to repent of their sins.
8:10 the joy of the Lord is your strength. As the people rejoiced in God and delighted in his presence, he would show himself strong to help them and defend them. "Joy" was a keynote because God had saved Israel, in both the remote and the recent past, and this story of salvation would have been told again in the reading of the Book of the Law.
8:12 eat . . . drink . . . send portions. These are important themes of worship in Deuteronomy, where worship was associated with God's rich gifts and the privilege of sharing them (Deut. 12:12; 14:23, 26, 27-29).
