8 ¹³ On the second day the heads of families of the whole people, with the priests and the Levites, assembled before Ezra the scribe to study the law. 8 ¹⁴ And they found written in the law that the LORD had given commandment through Moses that the Israelites should live in arbours Or tabernacles or booths during the feast of the seventh month, 8 ¹⁵ and that they should make proclamation throughout all their cities and in Jerusalem: 'Go out into the hills and fetch branches of olive and wild olive, myrtle and palm, and other leafy boughs to make arbours, as prescribed.' 8 ¹⁶ So the people went out and fetched them and made arbours for themselves, each on his own roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and the square at the Ephraim Gate. 8 ¹⁷ And the whole community of those who had returned from the captivity made arbours and lived in them, a thing that the Israelites had not done from the days of Joshua son of Nun to that day; and there was very great rejoicing. 8 ¹⁸ And day by day, from the first day to the last, the book of the law of God was read. They kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day there was a closing ceremony, according to the rule.