1On that day they read from the book of Moses while the people listened. In it they found this written: no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God.
2This was because they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and water. Instead they hired Balaam against them, to curse them. But our God turned the curse into a blessing.
3When the people heard the law, they separated from Israel everyone of mixed descent.
4Before this, Eliashib the priest was in charge of the rooms of the house of our God. He was closely joined to Tobiah,
5and he had made ready for him a large room. In that room they used to put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine and the oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers. The offerings for the priests were kept there too.
6During all this time I was not in Jerusalem. In the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had gone to the king. After some days I asked the king for leave,
7and I came to Jerusalem. There I learned of the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in making ready a room for him in the courts of the house of God.
8This troubled me very much. So I threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room.
9Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the rooms. I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
10I also found out that the Levites had not been given their portions. So the Levites and the singers who did the work had each gone back to his own field.
11Then I argued with the rulers and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered the Levites together and set them in their places.
12Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, the new wine and the oil into the storerooms.
13I put men in charge of the storerooms: Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah, one of the Levites. Their helper was Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah. These men were counted faithful, and their work was to share out the supplies to their brothers.
14Remember me, O my God, for this. Do not wipe out the good deeds I have done for the house of my God and for its services.
15In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys. They also brought wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. I warned them on the day when they sold food.
16Men of Tyre also lived in the city. They brought fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the sabbath to the people of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
17Then I argued with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing you are doing? You are making the sabbath day unholy."
18"Did not your fathers do the same? And did not our God bring all this trouble on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by making the sabbath unholy."
19So when it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I gave orders that the gates should be shut. I commanded that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. I set some of my servants at the gates, so that no load could be brought in on the sabbath day.
20So the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.
21Then I warned them and said to them, "Why do you spend the night beside the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on they did not come on the sabbath.
22I commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves, and to come and guard the gates, to keep the sabbath day holy. Remember me, O my God, for this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy.
23In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon and of Moab.
24Half of their children spoke the speech of Ashdod. They could not speak the language of the Jews, but spoke the language of one people or another.
25I argued with them and cursed them. I struck some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear by God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, and you shall not take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves."
26"Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by such things? Among many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet even he was led into sin by foreign women."
27"Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil, and break faith with our God by marrying foreign wives?"
28One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. So I drove him away from me.
29Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
30So I cleansed them from everything foreign. I set out the duties of the priests and the Levites, each in his own work,
31and I made arrangements for the wood offering at set times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.