Nehemiah 13:1-18 ▼

1 In that day they read in the book of Moses in the ears of the people; and it was found written in it, that the Ammonites and Moabites should not enter into the congregation of God for ever;

2 because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them: but our God turned the curse into a blessing.

3 And it came to pass, when they heard the law, that they were separated, even every alien in Israel.

4 And before this time Eliasib the priest dwelt in the treasury of the house of our God, connected with Tobias;

5 and he made himself a great treasury, and there they were formerly in the habit of bestowing the offerings, and the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithe of the corn, and the wine, and the oil, the ordered portion of the Levites, and singers, and porters; and the first-fruits of the priests.

6 But in all this time I was not in Jerusalem; for in the thirty-second year of Arthasastha king of Babylon I came to the king, and after a certain time I made my request of the king;

7 and I came to Jerusalem, and I understood the mischief which Eliasib had done in the case of Tobias, in making for him a treasury in the court of the house of God.

8 And it appeared very evil to me: so I cast forth all the furniture of the house of Tobias from the treasury.

9 And I gave orders, and they purified the treasuries: and I restored thither the vessels of the house of God, and the offerings, and the frankincense.

10 And I understood that the portion of the Levites had not been given: and they had fled every one to his field, the Levites and the singers doing the work.

11 And I strove with the commanders, and said, Wherefore has the house of God been abandoned? and I assembled them, and set them in their place.

12 And all Juda brought a tithe of the wheat and the wine and the oil into the treasuries,

13 to the charge of Selemia the priest, and Sadoc the scribe, and Phadaea of the Levites: and next to them was Anan the son of Zacchur, son of Matthanias; for they were accounted faithful: it was their office to distribute to their brethren.

14 Remember me, O God, in this, and let not my kindness be forgotten which I have wrought in regard to the house of the Lord God.

15 In those days I saw in Juda men treading wine-presses on the sabbath, and carrying sheaves, and loading asses with both wine, and grapes, and figs, and every kind of burden, and bringing them into Jerusalem on the sabbath-day:

16 and I testified in the day of their sale. Also their dwelt in it men bringing fish, and selling every kind of merchandise to the children of Juda and in Jerusalem on the sabbath.

17 And I strove with the free children of Juda, and said to them, What is this evil thing which ye do, and profane the sabbath-day?

18 Did not your fathers thus, and our God brought upon them and upon us and upon this city all these evils? and do ye bring additional wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath?