With the city gates secured and people doing their appointed jobs, Nehemiah turned their attention to Ezra, the scribe, and Ezra turned their hearts back to the Word of God. After 70 years of captivity, many people had never heard the Word of God. Now the Word of God did its work, leading people to conviction of sin, repentance, and joy in fellowship with God. They celebrated the feasts again, to remember how God had rescued and taken care of them in the past.