In our passage Nehemiah draws together the people of Jerusalem. They had celebrated a long forgotten feast, the Feast of Booths, and listened to the prophet Ezra who had led one of the earlier returns from exile explaining the Book of God’s Law. Ezra and the leaders looked back over the centuries at the wonder of God’s loving provision for them: thanking God for His intervention in their history; God’s answer to their prayers as they stood on the banks of Red Sea and then gave them a way across; safe on dry land God led them through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud to follow during the day and a pillar of fire at night. After God’s great goodness their fathers still failed God and turned from him. The people in Jerusalem confessed their fathers’ failures and disobedience and then confessed their own failures and disobedience.