So he read it before the plaza in front of the Water Gate from dawn till noon ¹  before the men and women and those children who could understand. ²  All the people were eager to hear ³  the book of the law.

Ezra ¹  read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day to the last. ²  They observed the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly ³  as was required. ⁴ 

All the officials sent Jehudi, who was the son of Nethaniah and the grandson of Cushi, to Baruch. They ordered him to tell Baruch, “Come here and bring with you ¹  the scroll you read in the hearing of the people.” ²  So Baruch son of Neriah went to them, carrying the scroll in his hand. ³ 

However, I have heard ¹  that you are able to provide interpretations and to decipher knotty problems. Now if you are able to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, you will wear purple and have a golden collar around your neck and be third ²  ruler in the kingdom.”

Now as for the dead being raised, ¹  have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, ²  how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the ³  God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ⁴ 

It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ¹  of the scroll, the king ²  would cut them off with a penknife ³  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ⁴ 

He brought the letter to king of Israel. It read: “This is a letter of introduction for my servant Naaman, ¹  whom I have sent to be cured of his skin disease.”

But their minds were closed. ¹  For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. ²  It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. ³ 

The king called out loudly ¹  to summon ²  the astrologers, wise men, and diviners. The king proclaimed ³  to the wise men of Babylon that anyone who could read this inscription and disclose its interpretation would be clothed in purple ⁴  and have a golden collar ⁵  placed on his neck and be third ruler in the kingdom.

So Baruch son of Neriah did exactly what the prophet Jeremiah had told him to do. He read what the Lord had said from the scroll in the temple of the Lord. ¹ 

Micaiah, who was the son of Gemariah and the grandson of Shaphan, heard Baruch read from the scroll everything the Lord had said. ¹ 

At that time ¹  the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll, and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness. ² 

Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow. ¹ 

But ¹  no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it.

The sons of Javan were Elishah, ¹  Tarshish, ²  the Kittim, ³  and the Dodanim. ⁴ 

from the descendants of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zaccur, ¹  and with them ²  70 men.

When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.

Surely ¹  I would wear it proudly ²  on my shoulder, I would bind ³  it on me like a crown;

For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John appeared. ¹