King James Version › Nehemiah › 13

Nehemiah

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1 On that day they read in the book of Moses in the au­di­ence of the peo­ple; and there­in was found writ­ten, that the Am­monite and the Moabite should not come into the con­gre­ga­tion of God for ev­er; 2 Be­cause they met not the chil­dren of Is­rael with bread and with wa­ter, but hired Bal­aam against them, that he should curse them: how­beit our God turned the curse into a bless­ing. 3 Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they sep­a­rat­ed from Is­rael all the mixed mul­ti­tude. 4 And be­fore this, Eliashib the priest, hav­ing the over­sight of the cham­ber of the house of our God, was al­lied unto To­bi­ah: 5 And he had pre­pared for him a great cham­ber, where afore­time they laid the meat of­fer­ings, the frank­in­cense, and the ves­sels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was com­mand­ed ­to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the of­fer­ings of the priests. 6 But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem: for in the two and thir­ti­eth year of Ar­tax­erx­es king of Baby­lon came I unto the king, and af­ter cer­tain days ob­tained I leave of the king: 7 And I came to Jerusalem, and un­der­stood of the evil that Eliashib did for To­bi­ah, in prepar­ing him a cham­ber in the courts of the house of God. 8 And it grieved me sore: there­fore I cast forth all the house­hold stuff of To­bi­ah out of the cham­ber. 9 Then I com­mand­ed, and they cleansed the cham­bers: and thith­er brought I again the ves­sels of the house of God, with the meat of­fer­ing and the frank­in­cense. 10 And I per­ceived that the por­tions of the Levites had not been giv­en them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled ev­ery one to his field. 11 Then con­tend­ed I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God for­sak­en? And I gath­ered them to­geth­er, and set them in their place. 12 Then brought all Ju­dah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the trea­suries. 13 And I made trea­sur­ers over the trea­suries, Shelemi­ah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Peda­iah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Za­c­cur, the son of Mat­ta­ni­ah: for they were count­ed faith­ful, and their of­fice was to dis­tribute unto their brethren. 14 Re­mem­ber me, O my God, con­cern­ing this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the of­fices there­of. 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. 16 There dwelt men of Tyre also there­in, which brought fish, and all man­ner of ware, and sold on the sab­bath unto the chil­dren of Ju­dah, and in Jerusalem. 17 Then I con­tend­ed with the no­bles of Ju­dah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and pro­fane the sab­bath day? 18 Did not your fa­thers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Is­rael by pro­fan­ing the sab­bath. 19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem be­gan to be dark be­fore the sab­bath, I com­mand­ed that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till af­ter the sab­bath: and some of my ser­vants set I at the gates, that there should no bur­den be brought in on the sab­bath day. 20 So the mer­chants and sell­ers of all kind of ware lodged with­out Jerusalem once or twice. 21 Then I tes­ti­fied against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sab­bath. 22 And I com­mand­ed the Levites that they should cleanse them­selves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanc­ti­fy the sab­bath day. Re­mem­ber me, O my God, concerning this al­so, and spare me ac­cord­ing to the great­ness of thy mer­cy. 23 In those days also saw I Jews that had mar­ried wives of Ash­dod, of Am­mon, and of Moab: 24 And their chil­dren spake half in the speech of Ash­dod, and could not speak in the Jews' lan­guage, but ac­cord­ing to the lan­guage of each peo­ple. 25 And I con­tend­ed with them, and cursed them, and smote cer­tain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daugh­ters unto their sons, nor take their daugh­ters unto your sons, or for your­selves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Is­rael sin by these things? yet among many na­tions was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Is­rael: nev­er­the­less even him did out­landish wom­en cause to sin. 27 Shall we then hear­ken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in mar­ry­ing strange wives? 28 And one of the sons of Joia­da, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to San­bal­lat the Horonite: there­fore I chased him from me. 29 Re­mem­ber them, O my God, be­cause they have de­filed the priest­hood, and the covenant of the priest­hood, and of the Levites. 30 Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and ap­point­ed the wards of the priests and the Levites, ev­ery one in his busi­ness; 31 And for the wood of­fer­ing, at times ap­point­ed, and for the first­fruits. Re­mem­ber me, O my God, for good.