Nehemiah 13:15–28

¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day. ¹⁶Additionally, men of Tyre who lived there were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem.

¹⁷Then I rebuked the nobles of Judah and asked, “What is this evil you are doing— profaning the Sabbath day? ¹⁸Did not your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are rekindling His wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”

¹⁹When the evening shadows began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem, just before the Sabbath, I ordered that the gates be shut and not opened until after the Sabbath. I posted some of my servants at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.

²⁰Once or twice, the merchants and those who sell all kinds of goods camped outside Jerusalem, ²¹but I warned them, “Why are you camping in front of the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on, they did not return on the Sabbath. ²²Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Remember me for this as well, O my God, and show me mercy according to Your abundant loving devotion.

²³In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ²⁴Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of the other peoples, but could not speak the language of Judah. ²⁵I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair.

Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! ²⁶Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel— yet foreign women drew him into sin. ²⁷Must we now hear that you too are doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”

²⁸Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.