Matthew Poole and continuators on Nehemiah 8:8

8 So they read in the book, in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense , and caused them to understand the reading .

To wit, Ezra and his companions successively or severally. l.

The meaning of the Hebrew words, which they expounded in the common language.

i. e. That which they read, to wit, the holy Scripture: the action being put for the object, as vision is oft put for the thing seen, and hearing for the thing heard, and fear for the thing feared. So they gave them both a translation of the Hebrew words into the Chaldee, and an exposition of the things contained in them, and of the duty incumbent upon the people by vertue of them, the declaration whereof was a great part of the Priests work. Mal. 2. 7.