Discovery BoxNehemiah 13:22-31
Context13:22 Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.
For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.
13:23 Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 13:24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod (or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned 1 ) and were unable to speak the language of Judah. 13:25 So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off 2 your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! 13:26 Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made 3 him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin! 13:27 Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying 4 foreign wives?”
13:28 Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.
13:29 Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, 5 and the Levites.
13:30 So I purified them of everything foreign, and I assigned specific 6 duties to the priests and the Levites. 13:31 I also provided for 7 the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits.
Please remember me for good, O my God.
[13:24] 1 tn Heb “people and people.”
[13:27] 4 tn Heb “give a dwelling to.”
[13:29] 5 tc One medieval Hebrew
[13:30] 6 tn Heb “a man in his work.”
[13:31] 7 tn The words “I also provided for” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
