ay, from the
first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God."
Neh. ch. 8. It was not the book of Deuteronomy alone that they read. We
might infer this from the extent of the reading, which was sufficient
for all the preceptive parts of the Pentateuch. But here we are not left
to mere inference. On the second day "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;" and that they
should "fetch olive-branches, and pine-branches, and myrtle-branches,
and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is
written." Neh. 8:13-17. The precept concerning booths with boughs of
trees occurs in Lev. 23:40-43, a passage which they might naturally
enough reach on the second day.

Ezra's assistants gave the sense not by labored expositions, but
by interpreting the Hebrew in the Chaldee vernacular of the
people. This would about double the time devoted to a given
section. All that pertained to the structure of the tabernacle
was superseded by the first temple, which served the returned
captives as their model in the erection of the second. We may
well suppose that this was omitted. There would then remain only
four or five chapters in the book of Exodus. Thus the passage in
question would naturally fall on the second day.

5. Jewish tradition ascribes to Ezra the work of settling the canon of
the Old Testament, and setting forth a corrected edition of the same.
Though some things included in this tradition are fabulous, the part of
it now under consideration is corroborated by all the scriptural
statements concerning him, nor is there any reasonable ground for
doubting its correctness. Be this as it may, it is admitted that from
Ezra's day onward the Pentateuch existed in its present form. We are
sure, therefore, that "the book of the law of Moses," out of which he
read to the people, was the book as we now have it--the whole
Pentateuch, written, according to uniform Jewish usage, on a single
roll. Ezra belonged to the priestly order that had in charge the keeping
of the sacred books, Deut. 31:25, 26, compared with 2 Kings 22:8, and
was moreover "a ready scribe in the law of Moses." His zeal for the
reestablishment of the Mosaic law in its purity shines forth in his
whole history. In his competency and fidelity we have satisfactory
evidence that the law of M