Nehemiah 13:17-27

17 Then ¹I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day?

18 "²Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath."

19 ³It came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the sabbath day.

20 Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside * Jerusalem.

21 Then ⁴I warned them and said to them, "Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you." From that time on they did not come on the sabbath.

22 And I commanded the Levites that ⁵they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers * to sanctify the sabbath day. For this also ⁶remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.

Mixed Marriages Forbidden

23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had ⁷married women from ⁸Ashdod, ⁹Ammon and Moab.

24 As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people.

25 So ¹⁰I contended with them and cursed them and ¹¹struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and ¹²made them swear by God, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

26 "¹³Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? ¹⁴Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and ¹⁵he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin.

27 "Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil ¹⁶by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?"

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Nehemiah 13:17-27 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 16

1. Nehemiah 13:11, 25
2. Ezra 9:13; Jeremiah 17:21
3. Leviticus 23:32
4. Nehemiah 13:15
5. 1 Chronicles 15:12; Nehemiah 12:30
6. Nehemiah 13:14, 31
7. Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5; Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 10:30
8. Nehemiah 4:7
9. Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:1
10. Nehemiah 13:11, 17
11. Deuteronomy 25:2
12. Nehemiah 10:29, 30
13. 1 Kings 11:1
14. 1 Kings 3:13; 2 Chronicles 1:12
15. 2 Samuel 12:24, 25
16. Ezra 10:2; Nehemiah 13:23

Footnotes 9

[a]. Or "contended with"
[b]. Lit "and"
[c]. Lit "and commanded"
[d]. Lit "witnessed against"
[e]. Lit "send a hand against"
[f]. Lit "given dwelling to"
[g]. Lit "according to the tongue of people and people"
[h]. Or "Is it reported"
[i]. Lit "giving dwelling to"