Nehemiah 8:15-17

International Standard Version

¹⁵ So they circulated a proclamation throughout their towns and in Jerusalem. It said, “Go out to the hill country and bring back olive branches, wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of mature trees, in order to set up tents, as has been written.”

¹⁶ Then the people went out and found branches to make tents for themselves on the roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, and in the courts of God’s Temple, in the plaza near the Water Gate, and in the plaza near the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷ The entire assembly of those who had returned from exile erected tents and lived in them. Indeed, from the days of Nun’s son Joshua until that day the Israelis had not done so. Joy was everywhere,^[a]