⁵⁷ to ^(A)show when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law for leprous disease.

⁸ “Take care, in ^(A)a case of leprous^[a] disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.

² So Ezra the priest ^(A)brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, ^(B)on the first day of the seventh month.

⁸ They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly,^[a] and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

This Day Is Holy

⁹ And Nehemiah, who was ^(A)the governor, and Ezra ^(B)the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, ^(C)“This day is holy to the Lord your God; ^(D)do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.

¹⁸ Then they said, ^(A)“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^(B)for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^(C)Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

⁷ For ^(A)the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people^[a] should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.