Nehemiah 13:4,5

When Nehemiah was away in Persia, the priest Eliashib allowed Tobiah to use a large room in the *temple. Tobiah was one of the enemies of the *Jews. He had tried to stop the people building the walls of Jerusalem again (Nehemiah 2:10; Nehemiah 2:19; Nehemiah 4:3). Also he was an *Ammonite. God’s law said that the *Jews must not allow *Ammonites to join them (Nehemiah 13:1). Tobiah was also a relative of Eliashib the priest. It seems that someone from Eliashib’s family had married Tobiah or someone from his family. The *Jews had promised not to marry foreigners (Nehemiah 10:30). So they had done something that they promised not to do. And this was a very important matter, because they made this promise to God.

The room that Tobiah used was a special room. The people stored the equipment for the *temple there. They also stored their *tithes and gifts for the priests in this room. So, when Tobiah used the room, they did not have anywhere to store the *tithes. Also some *Levites and *temple servants lived outside Jerusalem. They probably stayed in this room when they came to Jerusalem to serve. So when it was their time to serve in Jerusalem they did not have anywhere to stay.

Eliashib was the chief priest (Nehemiah 13:28). He was responsible for the entire *temple. And he was very important. But he was allowing Tobiah to use this room. And Eliashib had also allowed members of his family to marry foreigners. Eliashib was the leader of the priests. But even he was not obeying God’s law. So even the chief priest was not doing the things that the *Israelites promised to do (chapter 10).

v6 When this happened, I was not in Jerusalem. In the 32nd year of the rule of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I had returned to the king. Some time later, I asked the king to allow me to go back. v7 So I went back to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil thing that Eliashib had done. He had provided Tobiah with a large room inside the walls of the house of God. v8 I was very angry about this. So I threw all Tobiah’s property out of the room. v9 I ordered people to clean the rooms. I told the priests to carry out a special ceremony so that the rooms would be holy again. Then I put back into the room the equipment for the house of God. I also put back the gifts of grain and the *perfume.