When Ezra led the release, which was granted by Xerxes (Artaxerxes of Ezra 7:11-13), he was given authority to set up magistrates and judges to teach the Law of God to the people, who didn’t understand it. Not only was he to teach the Law of Moses, but he was, also, to cause all the people to obey it under pain of death, banishment, confiscation of property or imprisonment (Ezra 7:25-26). Therefore, when Ezra came to understand that the Jews had been intermarrying with the heathen (Ezra 9:1), he began to take steps to both stop such a thing from occurring again and to take measures to correct the existing situation, which amounted to rebellion against the God of Israel.
A cursory read of the text in Nehemiah, chapters seven through thirteen, would lead one to believe one event happened immediately after the other, but Ezra, chapters nine and ten, won’t allow that understanding. The fact is, the process of both stopping the rebellion from increasing and stopping it altogether took about eight months to achieve. Ezra arrived in the fifth month of the Jewish calendar, during the seventh year of the reign of Xerxes (Ezra 7:8-9). The people journeyed to Jerusalem from the cities where they lived to celebrate the annual festivals that occurred in the seventh month, beginning on the first day of the month (Nehemiah 8:1-2). It was at this time that Ezra read from the Law and convicted them of their sin of rebellion by intermarrying with the heathen. Later, they were to begin to appear before Ezra and the Jewish authorities in the ninth month to formally confess their sin (Ezra 10:9), and again in the tenth month to examine the response of those who were willing to obey the Law and divorce their foreign wives (Ezra 10:16). The whole matter of confession and examination was completed by the first day of the first month, presumably, during the eighth year of Xerxes, king of Persia (Ezra 10:17; cp. Ezra 7:8-9).
Notice that Nehemiah was the governor or the Tirshatha of Jerusalem when Ezra arrived (Nehemiah 8:9). In other words, he was already there! Both he and Ezra, as well as the Levites acted as the people’s teachers. The people were completely unfamiliar with their responsibilities, according to the Mosaic Covenant. Although Ezra had convicted them of the part they were playing in the rebellion against the God of Israel, the festivals they came to celebrate were festivals of rejoicing and commemorating the great things the Lord had done for their forefathers. Such a season was not the time for weeping and mourning. That would come later, but the Feast of Trumpets and Tabernacles were festivals of great joy, and weeping was not to be done during the observance of these memorials (Nehemiah 8:9-10). Therefore, the Levites encouraged the people to be at peace and celebrate the festival and praise the Lord, whose works the festivals commemorate (Nehemiah 8:11). Therefore, the people went their way and rejoiced before the Lord, sharing their blessings with others, because they understood the things that were told to them (Nehemiah 8:12).
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