37. The priests, the Levites, and many of the ordinary people of Israel settled in Jerusalem and its vicinity. By the seventh month the other Israelites were all settled in their towns. On the first day of that month
38. they all assembled in Jerusalem in the square just inside the east gate of the Temple.
39. They asked Ezra, the High Priest and scholar of the Law which the Lord had given Israel through Moses, to bring the book of the Law.
40. So Ezra brought it to the place where all the people — men, women, and all the priests — had gathered to hear it.
41. There in the square by the gate he read the Law to them from dawn until noon, and they all listened attentively.
42. Ezra was standing on a wooden platform that had been built for the occasion.
43. The following men stood at his right: Mattathiah, Shema, Ananiah, Azariah, Uriah, Hezekiah, and Baalsamos;
44. and the following stood at his left: Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Lothasubus, Nabariah, and Zechariah.