Nehemiah 13:1-3

XIII.

(1-3) Reform as to mixed marriages.

(1) On that day. — Probably the season of the Feast of Tabernacles, as before. But portions were selected to be read.

They read in the book of Moses. — “It was read” in the Pentateuch, and specially Deuteronomy 23. This is introduced for the sake of the action taken, and the history is given in brief, with a striking and characteristic parenthesis of Nehemiah’s own concerning the curse turned into a blessing.

Therein was found written. — What to the people generally was not known.

For ever. — No Ammonite or Ammonite family could have legal standing in the congregation, “even to their tenth generation;” and this interdict was to last “for ever.” It virtually though not actually amounted to absolute exclusion.

(3) The mixed multitude. — For the “mixed multitude,” or Ereb, which plays so prominent a part in Jewish history, see on Exodus 12:38. The process here was that of shutting out heathens who were in the habit of mingling with the people in the services. In Nehemiah 9 it was, as we saw, the people’s separation from the practices and spirit of the heathen.