Nehemiah 8:10

10 Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don't have enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad. The joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong."

Nehemiah 8:10 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 8:10

Then he said unto them
Nehemiah the Tirshatha or governor:

go your way;
to their own houses, and refresh themselves; it being noon, and they had stood many hours attentive to the reading and expounding of the law:

eat the fat, and drink the sweet:
not a common meal, but a feast, consisting of the richest provisions, the best of food and liquors

and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared;
for the poor, who had no food at home provided for them; the widow, fatherless, and stranger, who at festivals were to partake of the entertainment, ( Deuteronomy 16:11 )

for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be you sorry;
confirming what the Levites had said and exhorted to, ( Nehemiah 8:9 )

for the joy of the Lord is your strength;
to rejoice, as the Lord commanded them on such days as these, was a means both of increasing their bodily strength and their inward strength, and of fitting them the more to perform their duty to God and men with cheerfulness, which sorrow and heaviness made unfit for; and the joy which has the Lord for its object, and comes from him, is the cause of renewing spiritual strength, so as to run and not be weary, walk and not faint, in the ways of God.

Nehemiah 8:10 In-Context

8 They gave an oral translation of God's Law and explained it so that the people could understand it.

9 When the people heard what the Law required, they were so moved that they began to cry. So Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law, and the Levites who were explaining the Law told all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God, so you are not to mourn or cry.

10 Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don't have enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad. The joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong."

11 The Levites went around calming the people and telling them not to be sad on such a holy day.

12 So all the people went home and ate and drank joyfully and shared what they had with others, because they understood what had been read to them.