Nehemiah 8:13

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the wide place that was in front of the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel.

He went away, and talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them.

So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven more days, even fourteen days.

The king went up to Yahweh’s house, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in Yahweh’s house.

But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they didn’t make them cease, until the matter should come to Darius, and an answer should be returned by letter concerning it.

since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?

There is stern discipline for one who forsakes the way: whoever hates reproof shall die.

Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.

and has extended loving kindness to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. I was strengthened according to Yahweh my God’s hand on me, and I gathered together chief men out of Israel to go up with me.

For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is on all those who seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those who forsake him.”

My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue:

The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,

They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, then brought him in to the council,

and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there.

On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him.

I, even I Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, it shall be done with all diligence,

According to the good hand of our God on us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen;

Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way.

and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house that I will occupy.” The king granted my requests, because of the good hand of my God on me.

I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. They said, “Let’s rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

and his brothers, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them.

Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.

but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof;

The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall.

Poverty and shame come to him who refuses discipline, but he who heeds correction shall be honored.

A man who isolates himself pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.

saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat.

It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.

Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.

Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

when all Israel has come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever more. You shall not fear other gods.

Thus they were divided impartially by drawing lots; for there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.

The whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness.

His princes gave for a free will offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the rulers of God’s house, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred small livestock, and three hundred head of cattle.

The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.

this Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to Yahweh his God’s hand on him.

I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There wasn’t any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on.

They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.

All the people went their way to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Yahweh their God a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed, and worshiped Yahweh their God.

For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:

Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?

Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.

Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.

that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel:

Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you.

I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.

“Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.

But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death.”

He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray.

Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.

Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend’s countenance.

Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love.

The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”

The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.

Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in Yahweh’s house, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t.

“Isn’t my word like fire?” says Yahweh; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

“Yahweh has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in Yahweh’s house, for every man who is crazy, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom you teach, for you aren’t partial to anyone.

Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said,

On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, the priests and scribes came to him with the elders.

They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Judas then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.

As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them,

Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest.

The word of God increased and the number of the disciples greatly multiplied in Jerusalem. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Therefore I sent to you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all things that have been commanded you by God.”

So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

When they had appointed him a day, many people came to him at his lodging. He explained to them, testifying about God’s Kingdom, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening.

I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.