Nehemiah
Chapter 13
1 On that day, they read from the book of Moses to the people; it was written that Ammonites and Moabites may never join God’s assembly.
2 Because they didn’t bring food and water to the Israelites, but paid Balaam to curse them, God changed the curse into a blessing.
3 When they heard the law, they separated all the non-Israelites from Israel.
4 Before this, Eliashib the priest, who was in charge of the storerooms of our God’s house, had become close to Tobiah.
5 He set up a big room for him where they used to put the food offerings, incense, containers, and the parts of grain, new wine, and oil that were supposed to go to the Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and the gifts for the priests.
6 During all this time, I wasn’t in Jerusalem because in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I went to the king, and after a while, I got permission from the king to leave.
7 I came to Jerusalem and learned about the bad thing Eliashib did for Tobiah by setting up a room for him in the courts of God’s house.
8 It made me very sad, so I threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room.
9 Then I ordered, and they cleaned the rooms. After that, I brought back the items of God’s house, along with the grain offering and the incense.
10 I noticed that the Levites did not receive their shares, so the Levites and singers who did the work had all gone back to their own fields.
11 I argued with the leaders and asked, “Why is God’s house neglected?” I brought them together and put them in their positions.
12 Then all of Judah brought a tenth of the grain, new wine, and oil to the storerooms.
13 I appointed managers for the storage rooms: Priest Shelemiah, Scribe Zadok, and Pedaiah from the Levites, with Hanan, Zaccur’s son and Mattaniah’s grandson, beside them. They were trusted, and their job was to hand out supplies to their relatives.
14 God, remember me for this and do not erase the good things I have done for God’s house and its duties.
15 During that time, I saw people in Judah working on the Sabbath: they were pressing grapes, carrying grain, loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. I warned them on that day for selling food.
16 People from Tyre also lived there, who brought fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem.
17 I argued with Judah’s leaders and asked them, “What is this bad thing you are doing to disrespect the Sabbath day?”
18 Didn’t your ancestors do the same, and didn’t God cause all this trouble for us and this city? Yet you make God even angrier with Israel by not keeping the Sabbath holy.
19 When Jerusalem’s gates started to get dark before the Sabbath, I ordered them closed and said they shouldn’t open until after the Sabbath. I placed some of my workers at the gates to stop anyone from bringing in loads on the Sabbath day.
20 The traders and sellers of all kinds of goods stayed outside Jerusalem once or twice.
21 I warned them and asked, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do it again, I will arrest you.” After that, they did not come on the Sabbath anymore.
22 I told the Levites to make themselves clean, and to guard the gates to keep the Sabbath day holy. God, remember this too and show me mercy because you are very kind.
23 In those days, I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24 Their children spoke partly in Ashdod’s language and couldn’t speak the Jewish language, but only in the language of their own people.
25 I argued with them, cursed them, hit some of them, pulled out their hair and made them promise by God, saying, “You must not let your daughters marry their sons, or let your sons marry their daughters, or marry them yourselves.”
26 Didn’t Solomon, the king of Israel, sin because of these things? Still, there was no other king like him among many nations; he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel. But foreign women led even him into sin.
27 Should we listen to you and do this terrible thing, sinning against God by marrying foreign women?
28 One of Joiada’s sons, who was Eliashib the high priest’s son, married Sanballat the Horonite’s daughter, so I made him leave.
29 God, remember them because they have made the priesthood unclean and broken the agreement with the priests and Levites.
30 I purified them from all foreigners and set up the duties for the priests and Levites, each to their own task.
31 For the wood given at set times, and for the first crops. God, please remember me kindly.