Nehemiah 13:4-9

The Temple Cleansed

4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God

5 and had prepared for Tobiah a large room where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the temple articles, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.

6 While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to Artaxerxes king of Babylon ^[a] in the thirty-second year of his reign. Some time later I obtained leave from the king

7 to return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of the house of God.

8 And I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.

9 Then I ordered that the rooms be purified, and I had the articles of the house of God restored to them, along with the grain offerings and frankincense.

Nehemiah 13:4-9 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Artaxerxes king of Persia is identified here as the king of Babylon because Persia had conquered the Babylonian Empire.