Nehemiah 13

Tobiah thrown out of the temple

1That day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2because they had not come out to meet the Israelites with bread and water, but had hired Balaam against them to curse them — though our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3When the people heard the law, they separated out from Israel everyone of mixed descent. 4Before all this, Eliashib the priest, who had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God and was a relation of Tobiah, 5had fitted out for him a large room where they had formerly kept the grain offerings, the incense, the vessels and the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests. 6While all this was going on I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had gone back to the king. Some time later I asked the king for leave, 7and I returned to Jerusalem. There I found out the wrong Eliashib had done for Tobiah, fitting out a room for him in the courts of the house of God. 8I was disgusted, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9Then I gave the order and they purified the rooms, and I brought back into them the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

The Levites go back to their fields

10I also found out that the shares due to the Levites had not been handed over, so the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone off, each to his own field. 11I confronted the officials and said, “Why has the house of God been abandoned?” Then I gathered them together and put them back at their posts. 12And all Judah brought the tithe of grain, new wine and oil into the storerooms. 13Over the storerooms I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe and Pedaiah of the Levites, with Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, to assist them; they were reckoned trustworthy, and their task was to hand out the shares to their kinsmen. 14Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out the acts of loyalty I have shown to the house of my God and to its services.

The Sabbath under guard

15In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs and every sort of load, and hauling them into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. I warned them on the day they sold their food. 16Men of Tyre living in the city were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, and in Jerusalem itself. 17So I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18Is this not exactly what your ancestors did, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are stirring up still more wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” 19So when the gateways of Jerusalem began to fall into shadow before the Sabbath, I gave the order and the doors were shut, and I said they were not to be opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates, so that no load could come in on the Sabbath day. 20Once or twice the traders and the dealers in goods of every kind spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21So I warned them: “Why are you camping in front of the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. 22And I told the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates, so that the Sabbath day would be kept holy. Remember this too for me, my God, and spare me in the greatness of your faithful love.

Foreign wives and a forgotten language

23In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon and of Moab. 24Half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of this people or that, and none of them knew how to speak the language of Judah. 25I confronted them and called down curses on them; I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. And I made them swear by God: “You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26Was it not over such women that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among all those nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel — and even him the foreign women dragged into sin. 27Are we then to hear of you doing all this great evil, breaking faith with our God by marrying foreign women?” 28One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, so I drove him away from me. 29Remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. 30So I purified them of everything foreign, and I drew up the duties of the priests and the Levites, each man to his own task, 31and I made provision for the wood offering at set times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, my God, for good.