Nehemiah 13:21-31

21 Then ¹I 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 ²they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers * to sanctify the sabbath day. For this also ³remember 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 ⁴married women from ⁵Ashdod, ⁶Ammon 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 ⁷I contended with them and cursed them and ⁸struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and ⁹made 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 "¹⁰Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? ¹¹Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and ¹²he 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 ¹³by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?"

28 Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of ¹⁴Sanballat the Horonite, so I drove him away from me.

29 ¹⁵Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the ¹⁶covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

30 ¹⁷Thus I purified them from everything foreign and appointed duties for the priests and the Levites, each in his task,

31 and I arranged ¹⁸for the supply of wood at appointed times and for the first fruits. ¹⁹Remember me, O my God, for good.

Nehemiah 13:21-31 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.

Cross References

• 1. Nehemiah 13:15
• 2. 1 Chronicles 15:12; Nehemiah 12:30
• 3. Nehemiah 13:14, 31
• 4. Exodus 34:11-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-5; Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 10:30
• 5. Nehemiah 4:7
• 6. Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:1
• 7. Nehemiah 13:11, 17
• 8. Deuteronomy 25:2
• 9. Nehemiah 10:29, 30
• 10. 1 Kings 11:1
• 11. 1 Kings 3:13; 2 Chronicles 1:12
• 12. 2 Samuel 12:24, 25
• 13. Ezra 10:2; Nehemiah 13:23
• 14. Nehemiah 2:10, 19; Nehemiah 4:1
• 15. Nehemiah 6:14
• 16. Numbers 25:13
• 17. Nehemiah 10:30
• 18. Nehemiah 10:34
• 19. Nehemiah 13:14, 22

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "witnessed against"
• [b] Lit "send a hand against"
• [c] Lit "given dwelling to"
• [d] Lit "according to the tongue of people and people"
• [e] Or "Is it reported"
• [f] Lit "giving dwelling to"
• [g] Lit "for the defilings of"