The wanna-be apostle and spiritual leader of the true remnant of Armstrongism is doing a "study" on Nehemiah. One of his acolytes asked for the apostle to explain the hours mentioned in the scripture below.
Neh 9:1-4 “Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.
Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.”
This passage seems to say that the people stood for 12 hours (two fourth parts of the day)while they were either read to or publicly confessed their sins. How could that be given the limits of human endurance and the biological necessities common to all people?
I suppose that there were certainly some comings and goings by individuals and maybe official breaks as well. Also please consider that this is talking about daylight and not a 24 hour day. I doubt very much that they were trying to read in the middle fo the night, in the dark while most were nodding off.
Twelve hours of daylight divided by four would be three hours or just a bit longer than a standard COG service today. Then a break of about three hours for personal prayer and discussion, followed by another three hour service in the afternoon. This may have been even shorter than three hours each, as I would think that the scripture here was a general estimate concerning the timeframes.
Imagine three and half years in Petra spending six hours every Saturday listening to a Malmite preach the law. The lake of fire looks really appealing!