Nehemiah 13:18

18 Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city [too]? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!"

Nehemiah 13:18 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 13:18

Did not your fathers thus
Profane the sabbath in like manner:

and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon our city?
suffered them to be carried captive into a strange land, and their city destroyed for their sins, and for this of sabbath breaking among the rest, see ( Jeremiah 17:21-27 ) ( Ezekiel 20:16 Ezekiel 20:21 Ezekiel 20:24 ) ,

yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath;
additional judgments to those that had been already upon them for the same evil with others.

Nehemiah 13:18 In-Context

16 Tyrian men who lived in [Jerusalem] brought fish and every kind of merchandise and sold [it] on the Sabbath to the descendants of Judah and in Jerusalem.

17 So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath?

18 Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city [too]? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!"

19 So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates [to prevent] any {goods} being brought in on the day of the Sabbath.

20 So the merchants and the sellers of merchandise spent the night outside of Jerusalem once or twice.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "fathers"