Nehemiah 13:23-27

Nehemiah discovered something else when he returned to *Judah. Some of the men had married women from the nations called Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. God had ordered the people not to marry foreigners. He had also ordered the *Jews not to allow the *Ammonites and *Moabites to join them (Nehemiah 13:1-2). The people had promised God that they would not marry foreigners (Nehemiah 10:30). This was another promise to God that the people had failed to perform.

Although these people lived in *Judah, half of their children did not know the *Jews’ own language. They spoke the languages of other nations. They would not be able to read or to understand God’s law. It would be very easy for them to start to *worship the false gods of other nations.

Perhaps these men had married foreign women in order to make friends with people from other nations. Then these men could trade and they could make more money. But perhaps these men married the foreign women because these men had followed their emotions. Or perhaps there were not enough *Jewish women for all the men to marry. But whatever their reasons were, these men were not obeying God’s law.

Nehemiah was very angry. Again, his anger was not a mere emotion. He had full control over his behaviour. But he showed his disgust at what these men had done. He even pulled out their hair. Hair was very important to Jewish men. To lose their hair would cause them to be ashamed. Nehemiah was very strict with these men. But they respected his authority. And they accepted the punishment. Then Nehemiah forced these men to make a serious promise to God. Nehemiah ordered them not to marry foreign women. Also they must not allow their sons and daughters to marry foreigners.

Nehemiah reminded the people again about their history. God made King Solomon to be very wise. But even Solomon was not wise when he married foreign women. And they tempted him to *worship other false gods (1 Kings 11:1-13).

It seems that Nehemiah did not tell these men to send their foreign women away. That was how Ezra dealt with a similar problem many years earlier.

The *prophet Malachi lived about that time. God spoke to the people by Malachi about this matter too. He said that the people were not obeying God. When they married foreign women, they were not obeying God (Malachi 2:10-16).

v28 Joiada was the son of the chief priest Eliashib. The wife of one of Joiada’s sons was the daughter of Sanballat from Horon. So I chased Joiada’s son away from me.

Verses 28

Even the grandson of Eliashib the chief priest had married a daughter of Sanballat. Sanballat was one of the enemies of the *Jews. He had tried to stop the *Jews building the walls of Jerusalem again (Nehemiah 2:10; Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:1-2). Nehemiah was very angry because Sanballat was now a relative of the chief priest. And Nehemiah showed complete disgust against Eliashib’s grandson. Nehemiah refused even to allow that man (Eliashib’s grandson) to remain in the same room. Nehemiah forced the man to go away.

v29 You know about these men, my God. They have made the priests unholy. They have spoiled the agreement that you made with the priests and the *Levites.

v30 So I removed everything that was foreign from the priests and the *Levites. I gave to them their tasks. Everyone had his own job to do. v31 I appointed people to bring the gifts of wood and the first of the grain and fruit at the right time.

You know about these matters, my God. Show your kindness to me.