Nehemiah 13:25

_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._ Cursed, х_ 'ªQALLEEM_ (H7043)] - reproached them bitterly. SMOTE ... AND PLUCKED OFF THEIR HAIR. To cut off the hair of offenders seems to be a punishment rather disgraceful than severe; yet it is supposed that pain was added to disgrace, and that they tore off the hair with violence, as if they were plucking a bird alive....

23-31 If either parent be ungodly, corrupt nature will incline the children to take after that one; which is a strong reason why Christians should not be unequally yoked. In the education of children, great care should be taken about the government of their tongues; that they learn not the language of Ashdod, no impious or impure talk, no corrupt communication. Nehemiah showed the evil of these marriages. Some, more obstinate than the rest, he smote, that is, ordered them to be beaten by the officers according to the law, Deuteronomy 25:2; Deuteronomy 25:3. Here are Nehemiah's prayers on this occasion He prays, "Remember them, O my God." Lord, convince and convert them; put them in mind of what they should be and do. The best services to the public have been forgotten by those for whom they were done,...

Verse 25. _I CONTENDED WITH THEM_] Proved the fact against these iniquitous fathers, in a legal assembly. _AND CURSED THEM_] Denounced the judgments of God and the sentence of the law upon them. _SMOTE CERTAIN OF THEM_] Had them punished by _whipping_. _AND PLUCKED OFF THEIR HAIR_] Had them _shaven_, as a mark of the greatest ignominy. _AND MADE THEM SWEAR BY GOD_, saying, _Ye shall not give_] Caused them to bind themselves by an oath, that they would make no intermarriages with those who were not of the seed of Israel....

EXPOSITION NEHEMIAH'S EFFORTS FOR THE REFORM OF RELIGION (Nehemiah 13:1). After having exercised the office of governor for twelve years, from B.C. 444 to B.C. 432, Nehemiah had had occasion to visit the Persian court, either to consult Artaxerxes personally on certain matters connected with his province, or for some other reason unknown to us. During his absence various evil practices, to which some reference has been already made in connection with the renewal of the covenant (Nehemiah 10:30-16), acquired so much strength, and came to such a head, that, on Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem at the expiration of a year (verse 6),

CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The separation of the mixed multitude (Nehemiah 13:1)_ 2. The unholy alliance repudiated (Nehemiah 13:4) 3. Nehemiah's action in behalf of the Levites and singers (Nehemiah 13:10) 4. Provision for Sabbath observance (Nehemiah 13:15) 5. Nehemiah's protest (Nehemiah 13:23) 6. His own testimony as to his work (Nehemiah 13:30)...

SOME DETAILS OF NEHEMIAH'S RULE. This section, taken for the most part from Nehemiah's memoirs, deals with his zeal for the sanctity of the Temple (Nehemiah 13:4), his organisation for the maintenance of the Levites (Nehemiah 13:10), his reform regarding Sabbath observance (Nehemiah 13:15), and his measures against those who had contracted marriages with aliens (Nehemiah 13:23). Nehemiah 13:28 f. contains some concluding words of Nehemiah. When it is remembered that for twelve years he had been working among the people, enforc

CURSED: i.e. caused them to be cursed. Hebrew idiom. Hebrew. _kalal,_ as in Nehemiah 13:2. SMOTE. Hebrew idiom. caused them to be smitten (as in Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15.John 19:1; John 19:1). CERTAIN. men. Hebrew. _'enosh._ App-14....

Nehemiah's protest against mixed marriages, cf. Nehemiah 9:2; Nehemiah 10:28; Nehemiah 10:30; Ezra 9:1 ff; Ezra 10:1 ff....

AND I CONTENDED WITH THEM, &C.— These words, it must be acknowledged, as proceeding from Nehemiah's own month, sound somewhat harshly in our translation; but the meaning of them is no more than this, _"I contended with them, 1:_e. I expostulated the matter with them; _I cursed them, 1:_e. excommunicated them; in the doing of which I denounced God's judgments against them; _I smote certain of them, 1:_e. ordered the officers to beat some of the most notorious offenders either with rods or scourges, according to Deuteronomy 25:2 and _I plucked off their hair. 1:_e. I commanded them to be shaved, thereby to put them to shame, and to make them look like vile slaves; for, as the hair was esteemed a great ornament among the eastern nations, so baldness was accounted a great disgrace. And Nehemiah had a sufficient provocation to inflict these several punishments upon t

5. Nehemiah deals with the problem of mixed marriages. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 13:23-29 23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people. 25 So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin. 27 Do we then hear about