Nehemiah 8:6

6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people held up their hands and said, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 8:6 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 8:6

And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God
Before he began to read in the book of the law, he addressed himself to God in a short prayer, wholly in the benedictory way; ascribing blessing, honour, and glory to him, celebrating his being and perfections, setting forth his greatness and his excellency, who was the author and giver of the law he was about to read; and this he the rather did, that what he read might be the more carefully attended to, and come with the greater authority, weight, and influence on those that heard it; and so, Maimonides ^F15 says, it is the custom with the Jews, in their synagogues, for the reader, after he has opened the book, and looked out the place he reads, to say this blessing,

``Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hath chosen us out of all people, and hath given us his law; blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast given us the law; and all the people answer, Amen;''

as they now did, as follows:

and all the people answered, Amen, Amen:
repeating the word, to declare their hearty assent to what Ezra had expressed; the Jews have many rules concerning pronouncing the "Amen", that it must not be too quick, curt, and short, nor with too high a voice ^F16:

with lifting up their hands;
a prayer gesture, to which the apostle refers, ( 1 Timothy 2:8 ) ,

and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to
the ground;
expressing hereby the awful sense they had of the Divine Being, and their profound adoration of him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Hilchot Tephillah, c. 12. sect. 5.
F16 Schulchan Aruch, ut supra, (par. 1.) c. 124. sect. 12.

Nehemiah 8:6 In-Context

4 Ezra the teacher stood on a high wooden platform that had been built just for this time. On his right were Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah. And on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

5 Ezra opened the book in full view of everyone, because he was above them. As he opened it, all the people stood up.

6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people held up their hands and said, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

7 These Levites explained the Teachings to the people as they stood there: Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah.

8 They read from the Book of the Teachings of God and explained what it meant so the people understood what was being read.