Nehemiah 13:23-29

23 In those days I saw some Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

24 Half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or one of the other languages, but they couldn't understand the language of Judah well enough to speak it.

25 So I reprimanded those Jews, cursed them, beat some of them, and pulled out their hair. I made them swear by God: "We won't allow our daughters to marry their sons, and we won't allow their daughters to marry us or our sons."

26 I said, "Wasn't it because of marriages like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? There wasn't a king like him among all nations. God loved him, and God made him king of all Israel. But his non-Israelite wives led him to sin.

27 Should we follow your example, commit such a serious crime against our God, and be unfaithful to him by marrying non-Israelite women?"

28 Even one of Joiada's sons was a son-in-law of Sanballat from Beth Horon. (Joiada was the son of the chief priest Eliashib.) I chased Joiada's son away from me.

29 [Nehemiah prayed,] "Remember them, my God, because they have contaminated the priestly office and the promise you made to the priests and Levites."

Nehemiah 13:23-29 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NEHEMIAH 13

This chapter relates the reformation of various abuses crept in among the Jews by Nehemiah, who removed the Moabites and Ammonites, mixed with them, Ne 13:1-3, threw the household goods of Tobiah out of a chamber of the temple, and restored it to its former use, Ne 13:4-9, took care that the Levites had their portion given them which had been kept from them, Ne 13:10-14 prevented the profanation of the sabbath by selling goods on that day, Ne 13:15-22, and put a stop to the marrying of strange wives, which had prevailed again among them, Ne 13:23-31.