Nehemiah 8:15

They also learned that they should proclaim in Jerusalem and in all the towns that the people should go to the hills and cut branches from olive trees that they have planted and from wild olive trees and from myrtle trees and palm trees and fig trees. They should make shelters from these branches, and live in those shelters during the festival, just as Moses wrote that they should do.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.

In Context

14While they were doing that, they realized that Yahweh had told Moses to command the Israeli people to live in shelters during that month, to remember that their ancestors lived in shelters when they left Egypt.

16So the people went out of the city and cut branches and used them to build shelters. They built shelters on the flat roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the temple, and in the plazas/squares close to the Water Gate and the Ephraim Gate.

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Cross References

Genesis 8:11This time the dove returned to him in the evening and, surprisingly, in its beak there was a leaf from an olive tree that the dove had just plucked. Then Noah knew that the water had truly receded from the surface of the ground.

Leviticus 23:40But on the first day, you are permitted to pick fruit from trees. Cut palm fronds/branches and other leafy branches from trees or from bushes that grow by the streams, and make shelters/huts to live in for that week. Then rejoice in my presence for those seven days.

Judges 9:48So he and all the men who were with him went up Zalmon Mountain which is near Shechem. Abimelech cut some branches of trees with an axe, and put them on his shoulders. Then he said to all the men who were with him, “Quickly, do what I have just done!”

John 12:13So they cut branches from some palm trees and took the branches out of the city to wave them when they met him. Some of them were shouting things like, “Hooray!” “May the Lord God bless the one who is coming with his authority [MTY]!” Some other people were shouting, “ May God bless the King of Israel!”

Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 8:14-18

The Joy of the People. ( b. c. 444.) 13 And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law. 14 And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: 15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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