A pattern of worship emerges in Nehemiah chapter 8 with the first public reading of the Book of the Law setting a pattern for King Benjamin’s gathering in Mosiah chapters 2 through 5. This reading began on “the first day of the seventh month,” (Nehemiah 8:2) which would be Rosh Hashanah, or Feast of Trumpets. On this day there was a ceremonial blowing of the trumpet (shofar) signaling the first day of the new year. The trumpet also signaled significant events. Joseph Smith received the gold plates containing the Book of Mormon on Rosh Hashanah 1827. The initial public reading of the Book of the Law and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon both occurred on this important Jewish holiday and marked the beginning of Holy Month with Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) following within the same month.
I can say with about 99.7% certainty that King Benjamin’s speech was given during the Feast of Tabernacles. This post will be a list of comparisons between Ezra’s reading of the law and King Benjamin’s speech.
- Ezra had all the people gathered together “as one man” near the Water Gate, which was near the Gihon Spring, which ran into the Pool of Siloam. (Nehemiah 8:1). During the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests would carry water in pitchers from this pool, and it would be poured on the altar for the joyous water libation. The congregation consisted of “men and women, and all that could hear with understanding” (8:2). King Benjamin sent a proclamation, and “the people gathered themselves together throughout all the land,” consisting of every man and his wife, sons, daughters, and grandchildren (Mosiah 2:1,5).
- The Water Gate in Jerusalem was just south of the temple. King Benjamin’s people gathered at the temple. (Mosiah 2:1)
- Ezra read the Book of the Law in the “ears of all the people” who could “hear with understanding” (8:2-3). King Benjamin said, “open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand” (2:9).
- “Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood” and “was above all the people” (8:4-5). King Benjamin addressed the people from a tower. (2:7-8)
- Nehemiah 8:4 lists several witnesses present. King Benjamin said, “Ye yourselves are witnesses this day.” (2:14)
- When Ezra opened the book, the people stood to the covenant, answered “Amen, Amen,” lifted up their hands in the Hallel Gesture, bowed their heads, and “worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.” (8:6) King Benjamin’s people fell to the earth, asked for mercy and forgiveness through the atoning blood of Christ, and expressed their willingness “to enter into a covenant with our God.” (Mosiah 4:1-2; 5:5)
- Ezra read from the Book of the Law, which, according to many scholars, is the Book of Deuteronomy. King Benjamin quotes from the paragraph of the king in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, which says that the king’s “heart be not lifted up above his brethren,” that the king should not “multiply unto himself silver and gold,” and that he should not cause the people to return to Egypt where they were slaves. Benjamin told his people they should not consider him to be “more than a mortal man.” He said, “Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves one of another.” He said, “I . . . have not sought gold nor silver nor any manner of riches of you.” (2:10,12-13)
- Ezra said, “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (8:10) The Feast of Tabernacles was a time of rejoicing, especially the water libation. During King Benjamin’s speech, the words joy and rejoice appear 14 times.
- In the Book of the Law, they discover the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), which they have neglected to keep. (8:14). They are supposed to dwell in booths (or tabernacles) for seven days. The eighth day was “the great day of the feast” (John 7:37). During the water libation on this day, Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” The people went forth into the mount (symbolic of the temple) and gathered olive branches (symbolic of healing and the atonement of Jesus Christ), pine, or shemen branches (symbolic of fruitfulness and prosperity), myrtle branches (symbolic of growth), and palm branches (symbolic of uprightness and victory). They used the branches to make frameworks and roofs for tabernacles. In Hebrew, tabernacle and tent are the same word (‘ohel). King Benjamin’s people pitched tents round about the temple (Mosiah 2:5). Benjamin said he was old and “about to yield up this mortal frame to its mother earth” (2:26). He prophesies of Jesus Christ, who would “dwell in a tabernacle of clay” (Mosiah 3:5). References to tabernacles, frames, mother earth, and clay would remind the people of the tabernacle frameworks made of branches from mother earth. Mosiah would be coronated as the new king. Coronations for kings in Israel were performed around the Feast of Tabernacles.
- Both events in the Bible and Book of Mormon were multiday celebrations. Mosiah 2:3 tells us they are bringing burnt offerings “according to the Law of Moses.” Of the three required feasts, the Feast of Tabernacles had the most animal sacrifices (see Numbers 28-29). Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was one of the three required feasts, but it was originally a single-day event and would not require dwelling overnight in tents.
