Nehemiah 13:19-22

Nehemiah gave orders that people must not trade on the 7th day of the week. He ordered the guards in Jerusalem to shut the gates of the city during the 7th day. He also spoke to the people from other nations who brought goods to sell. He warned them not to come on the 7th day of the week. He told the *Levites to make themselves clean and holy and to guard the gates of the city. Nehemiah believed that Jerusalem was a holy city (Nehemiah 11:1; Nehemiah 11:18). He wanted Jerusalem to remain a holy city that pleased God.

Nehemiah prayed again. He remembered God’s great love. And Nehemiah asked God to show his (God’s) kindness.

v23 In those days, I also saw men from *Judah who had married women from the nations called Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. v24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the languages of the other nations. They could not speak the language of *Judah. v25 So I told these men that their behaviour was wrong. I asked God to allow bad things to happen to them. I struck some of them and I pulled out their hair. I forced them to make a promise to God. I said, ‘You must not allow their daughters to marry your sons. You must not take their daughters to be wives for you or for your sons. v26 This was how Solomon the king of *Israel *sinned. There was no king as great as he was in any of the nations. God loved him very much and God made him king over all *Israel. But foreign women made him *sin. v27 And now, we hear that you also are doing the same wicked things. We must not *sin against our God. We must not marry foreign women.’