NIV Nehemiah Audio Bible
Nehemiah 13: The Re-establishment of Law & Order in Jerusalem – Clear & Engaging Audio Bible Reading | Rebuilding the Wall, Sabbath Violations, and Foreign Marriages
Experience the powerful events of Nehemiah 13 with this clear and engaging audio recording. Follow the story of Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the wall, the Sabbath violations, and the foreign marriages that threatened to compromise the purity of God’s people. Perfect for study, reflection, or meditation, immerse yourself in this historic chapter and let the Scriptures come alive.
NEHEMIAH 13 (NIV)
1 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,
2 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.)
3 When the people heard this
law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
4 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,
5 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.
6 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
7 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.
8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s
household goods out of the room.
9 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.
10 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.
11 So I rebuked the officials and asked
them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and
stationed them at their posts.
12 All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the
storerooms.
13 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.
14 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.
15 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.
16
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.
17 I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked
thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day?
18 Didn’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.”
19 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.
20 Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of
goods spent the night outside Jerusalem.
21 But I warned them and said, “Why
do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.”
From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath.
22 Then I commanded the
Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the
Sabbath day holy.
Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your
great love.
23 Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from
Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
24 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.
25 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’s
name and said: “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.
26 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.
27 Must we hear now that you too are doing all this
terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign
women?”
28 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.
29 Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the
covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
30 So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and
assigned them duties, each to his own task.
31 I also made provision for
contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits.
Remember me with favor, my God.