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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
    <div class="book bkNEH">
        <div class="chapter ch13" data-usfm="NEH.13">
            <div class="label">13</div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Nehemiah&#8217;s Final Reforms</span></div><div class="p"><span class="content">  </span><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="NEH.13.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="NEH.13.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) </span></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="NEH.13.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="NEH.13.3"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="NEH.13.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, </span></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="NEH.13.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="NEH.13.5"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="NEH.13.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission </span></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="NEH.13.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. </span></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="NEH.13.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah&#8217;s household goods out of the room. </span></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="NEH.13.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="NEH.13.9"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="NEH.13.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="NEH.13.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">So I rebuked the officials and asked them, &#8220;Why is the house of God neglected?&#8221; Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="NEH.13.11"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="NEH.13.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms. </span></span><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="NEH.13.13"><span class="label">13</span><span class="content">I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="NEH.13.13"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="NEH.13.14"><span class="label">14</span><span class="content">Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="NEH.13.14"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="NEH.13.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. </span></span><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="NEH.13.16"><span class="label">16</span><span class="content">People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. </span></span><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="NEH.13.17"><span class="label">17</span><span class="content">I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, &#8220;What is this wicked thing you are doing&#8212;desecrating the Sabbath day? </span></span><span class="verse v18" data-usfm="NEH.13.18"><span class="label">18</span><span class="content">Didn&#8217;t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v18" data-usfm="NEH.13.18"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="NEH.13.19"><span class="label">19</span><span class="content">When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. </span></span><span class="verse v20" data-usfm="NEH.13.20"><span class="label">20</span><span class="content">Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. </span></span><span class="verse v21" data-usfm="NEH.13.21"><span class="label">21</span><span class="content">But I warned them and said, &#8220;Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.&#8221; From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. </span></span><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="NEH.13.22"><span class="label">22</span><span class="content">Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="NEH.13.22"><span class="content">Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="NEH.13.22"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="NEH.13.23"><span class="label">23</span><span class="content">Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. </span></span><span class="verse v24" data-usfm="NEH.13.24"><span class="label">24</span><span class="content">Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. </span></span><span class="verse v25" data-usfm="NEH.13.25"><span class="label">25</span><span class="content">I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God&#8217;s name and said: &#8220;You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. </span></span><span class="verse v26" data-usfm="NEH.13.26"><span class="label">26</span><span class="content">Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. </span></span><span class="verse v27" data-usfm="NEH.13.27"><span class="label">27</span><span class="content">Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v27" data-usfm="NEH.13.27"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="NEH.13.28"><span class="label">28</span><span class="content">One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="NEH.13.28"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="NEH.13.29"><span class="label">29</span><span class="content">Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="NEH.13.29"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v30" data-usfm="NEH.13.30"><span class="label">30</span><span class="content">So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. </span></span><span class="verse v31" data-usfm="NEH.13.31"><span class="label">31</span><span class="content">I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits.</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v31" data-usfm="NEH.13.31"><span class="content">Remember me with favor, my God.</span></span></div>
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