Nehemiah 13:15

In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.

In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath. The cessation of the temple services was necessarily followed by a public profanation of the sabbath, and this had gone so far that labour was carried on in the fields, and fish brought to the markets, on the sacred day. Nehemiah took the decisive step of ordering the city gates to be shut, and not to be opened, until the Sabbath was past; and in order to ensure the faithful execution of this order, he stationed some of his own servants as guards, to prevent the introduction of any commodities on that day. On the merchants and various dealers finding admission refused them, they set up booths outside the walls, in hopes of still driving a traffic with the peasantry, but the governor threatened, if they continued, to adopt violent measures for their removal. For this purpose a body of Levites was stationed as sentinels at the gate, with discretionary powers to protect the sanctification of the Sabbath.