Nehemiah 13:18

18 Isn't this exactly what your ancestors did? And because of it didn't God bring down on us and this city all this misery? And here you are adding to it - accumulating more wrath on Jerusalem 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 Tyrians living there brought in fish and whatever else, selling it to Judeans - in Jerusalem, mind you! - on the Sabbath.
17 I confronted the leaders of Judah: "What's going on here? This evil! Profaning the Sabbath!
18 Isn't this exactly what your ancestors did? And because of it didn't God bring down on us and this city all this misery? And here you are adding to it - accumulating more wrath on Jerusalem by profaning the Sabbath."
19 As the gates of Jerusalem were darkened by the shadows of the approaching Sabbath, I ordered the doors shut and not to be opened until the Sabbath was over. I placed some of my servants at the gates to make sure that nothing to be sold would get in on the Sabbath day.
20 Traders and dealers in various goods camped outside the gates once or twice.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.