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13 Then someone read out loud to the people from a scroll that contained the law that God gave to Moses. They learned that the law said that no one from the Ammonite or Moabite people groups should ever join the Israelite people when they gathered together to worship God. 2 The law said this because the people of Ammon and the people of Moab did not give any food or water to the Israelites while they were traveling through their areas after leaving Egypt. Instead, they paid Balaam to get him to curse the Israelites. But our God turned that attempt to curse Israel into a blessing. 3 So the people obeyed that law. They sent away all the people whose ancestors had come from other countries.
4 When he became the Supreme Priest, Eliashib got control of the storerooms in the temple. Now he was related to Tobiah. 5 He allowed Tobiah to have a large room in which the priests used to store supplies. These included the grain offerings and the incense, the equipment for the temple, and the tithes of grain and wine and olive oil. God had commanded the people to bring these to the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers. This room had also held the offerings for the priests. 6 During that time I was not in Jerusalem, because in the thirty-second year that Artaxerxes was the king of Babylonia, I had gone back to report to the king what I had been doing. After I had been there a while, I asked the king to allow me to return to Jerusalem.
7 When I arrived in Jerusalem, I discovered the evil thing that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by allowing him to use this room in the temple area. 8 That grieved me very much. I threw everything that belonged to Tobiah out of that room. 9 Then I commanded the priests to perform a ritual to cleanse that room and make it pure again. I also ordered the equipment for the temple and the grain offerings and incense to be put back in that room where they belonged.
10 I also learned that the singers and the other Levites who were responsible for the temple services had left Jerusalem. They had returned to their own fields because the people had stopped giving them 10 percent of their harvests, since Tobiah had occupied the storeroom. 11 So I rebuked the city officials. I told them, “You have neglected the work of the temple!” Then I brought the Levites and the singers back to the temple and told them to do their work again. 12 Then all the people of Judah started bringing their tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil to the temple storerooms once again. 13 I appointed some men to be in charge of the storerooms. They were Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah the Levite. I also appointed Hanan the son of Zaccur and grandson of Mattaniah to assist them. I appointed these men because everyone knew that they were trustworthy and would distribute the offerings fairly to their associates.
14 “My God, please bless me for this. Yes, bless me for the good things that I have done for your temple and for the temple services!”
15 During that time, I saw some people in Judea who were working on the Sabbath day. Some were pressing grapes to make wine. Others were taking their grain and loading it on donkeys. Others were also loading bags of wine, baskets of grapes, figs, and many other things onto donkeys and bringing them into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. I warned them not to sell food to the people of Judea on Sabbath days. 16 I also saw some people from the city of Tyre who were living there in Jerusalem bringing fish and other things into Jerusalem to sell to the people of Judah on the Sabbath day. 17 So I rebuked the Jewish leading citizens. I said to them, “This is a very evil thing that you are doing! You are making the Sabbath day into something God never wanted it to be. 18 You know that your ancestors did these same things, and God punished our nation by bringing great trouble to this city! But now you too are breaking the laws for the Sabbath day. You are going to cause God to be angry with the nation of Israel again. He will punish us even more!”
19 So I commanded the gatekeepers to shut the doors of the gates of the city when it started to get dark on Friday evening. I commanded them not to open the gates until Saturday evening. I also stationed some of my men at the gates so they would make sure that no one brought things to sell into the city in between those times, on the Sabbath day. 20 One or two times traders and merchants selling all kinds of things camped outside the city on the night before the Sabbath day. They were hoping to sell something the next day. 21 I warned them. I said to them, “It is useless for you to camp here outside the walls on Friday night. If you do this again, I will arrest you by force!” After that, they did not come on Sabbath days.
22 I also commanded the Levites to perform a ritual to purify themselves and then take up stations to guard the city gates. I wanted them to ensure that Sabbath days were kept holy by not allowing merchants to enter the city on that holy day.
“My God, please bless me for doing this too! And be kind to me, because your kindness is so great.”
23 During that time, I also learned that many of the Jewish men had married women from the city of Ashdod, and from the Ammonite and Moabite people groups. 24 So half of their children spoke a foreign language, and they did not know how to speak Hebrew. They spoke whatever language their foreign parent spoke. 25 So I rebuked those men. I asked God to curse them. I struck some of them with my fists. I pulled out their hair. Then I forced them to make a solemn promise, knowing that God was listening. I made them promise that they would never again allow their daughters to marry foreign men. I also made them promise that they and their sons would not marry foreign women. 26 I said to them, “You know that Solomon, the king of Israel, sinned as a result of marrying foreign women who worshiped idols! You know that he was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him, and God set him as the king over all the people of Israel. But his foreign wives caused even him to sin! 27 I am grieved to hear this about you! You have married foreign wives who worship idols. You have commited a great sin against our God!”
28 A man who was a son of Joiada and a grandson of Eliashib the Supreme Priest had married the daughter of our enemy Sanballat the Horonite. So I forced this man to leave Jerusalem.
29 “My God, these men have brought shame to the priesthood. They have broken the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. Punish them as they deserve!”
30 I took away everything from the priests that came from other nations and religions. I also established regulations for the priests and for the Levites so they would know what work each of them was supposed to do. 31 I also arranged for the people to bring their offerings of wood at the set times to burn on the altar, and to bring the first part of what they harvested of each crop during the year.
“My God, please consider that I have done all these things, and bless me for doing them.”