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• Because the Law of Moses was written in Hebrew but the people are by this time more familiar with Aramaic, he has to make sure that the Levites “caused the people to understand the Law.” As they read in the book of the Law of God, they have to read “distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”
• Reading the law in Hebrew alone was not enough. Ezra had to read each verse in Hebrew, but then interpret it in Aramaic, to make sure that the people understood it correctly.
• Jews understand these verses to mean that the tradition of Targum had begun. As we shall see in our lessons on the Aramaic Targums, the Targums were the “official” translations of the books of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. In other words, to make sure that the Jews understood the Hebrew Bible, translations were made into Aramaic. Jews were expected to read both the Hebrew Bible and the Aramaic translation, or Targum.