What happened during Nehemiah’s absence
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📚On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and it was found written that the Ammonite and the Moabite✭ should never come into the congregation of God, 2 📚because they did not meet the children of Israel with food and water✭, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However our God turned the curse into a blessing✭. 3 📚✭Now it came about when they heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. 4 📚✭And before this, Eliashib the priest, who was in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God, was closely associated with Tobiah. 5 📚And he had provided for him a large room, where previously they had put the grain offerings, the frankincense and the vessels and the tithes of grain, the new wine and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers, and the offerings of the priests.
6 📚But during this whole time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon✭ I went to the king. But after some days I obtained leave from the king, 7 📚and came to Jerusalem, and came to know of the evil thing Eliashib was doing for Tobiah, in providing a room for him in the courts of the house of God. 8 📚✭And I was very grieved, so I threw all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the room. 9 📚✭Then I commanded that the rooms be purified, and they purified the rooms. And I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
Nehemiah’s reforms
10 📚✭And I learned that the portions for the Levites had not been given to them, for each one of the Levites and the singers, who had been doing the work, had gone off to his field. 11 📚So I reprimanded the leaders, and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together, and set them in their places.
12 📚✭Then all Judah brought the tithe of grain and new wine and oil to the storerooms. 13 📚And I appointed Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah among the Levites, to be in charge of the storerooms, and next to them Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered faithful✭, and their duty was to distribute portions to their brethren.
14 📚Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds which I have done for the house of my God, and for its services.
15 📚In those days I saw in Judah some treading the wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys, also wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of loads, which they were bringing into Jerusalem on the Sabbath✭ day. And I warned them about selling provisions on that day. 16 📚Also living there were people from Tyre who brought fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah in Jerusalem.
17 📚Then I reprimanded✭ the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What is this evil thing you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 📚Did not your fathers act so, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you are bringing more wrath✭ on Israel by profaning the Sabbath”.
19 📚And it came about just before the Sabbath, when it grew dark✭ at the gates of Jerusalem, I gave a command✭ that the gates be shut, and ordered that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I placed some of my servants at the gates, so that no load would be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 So once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21 📚Then I reprimanded them and said to them, “Why are you spending the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will seize you”. From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. 22 📚And I commanded the Levites to purify✭ themselves, and to go and guard the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember✭ me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy.
23 📚In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, from Ammon, and from Moab. 24 📚✭And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, or the language of one or the other people, and could not speak the Jews’ language. 25 📚✭And I reprimanded them and pronounced a curse against them, and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them take an oath in God’s name, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves. 26 📚Did not Solomon king of Israel sin in these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, who was loved by his God, and whom God made king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin. 27 📚✭Shall we then hear about you that you are doing all this great evil, being unfaithful to our God by marrying strange wives?”
28 📚✭And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.
29 📚✭Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.