Sabbath Restored

¹⁵ In those days I saw in Judah people who were treading wine presses ^(A)on the Sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs, and every kind of load, ^(B)and they were bringing them into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So ^(C)I admonished them on the day they sold food. ¹⁶ Also people of Tyre were living ^[a]there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the Sabbath, even in Jerusalem. ¹⁷ Then ^(D)I ^[b]reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, ^[c]by profaning the Sabbath day? ^18 (E)Did your fathers not do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

¹⁹ And ^(F)it came about that just as it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered that the doors be shut, ^[d]and that they were not to open them until after the Sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem. ²¹ Then ^(G)I warned them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will ^[e]use force against you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. ²² And I ordered the Levites that ^(H)they were to purify themselves and come as gatekeepers to sanctify the Sabbath day. For this also ^(I)remember me, my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your mercy.

Mixed Marriages Forbidden

²³ In those days I also saw that the Jews had ^[f](J)married women from ^(K)Ashdod, ^(L)Ammon, and Moab. ²⁴ As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them knew how to speak the language of Judah, but ^[g]only the language of his own people. ²⁵ So ^(M)I quarreled with them and cursed them, and ^(N)struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and ^(O)made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take any of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. ^26 (P)Did Solomon the king of Israel not sin regarding these things? ^(Q)Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and ^(R)he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; yet the foreign women caused even him to sin. ²⁷ Has it not then been reported about you that you have committed all this great evil ^(S)by acting unfaithfully against our God, by ^[h]marrying foreign women?” ²⁸ Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, became a son-in-law of ^(T)Sanballat the Horonite, so I chased him away from me. ^29 (U)Remember them, my God, ^[i]because they have defiled the priesthood and the ^(V)covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

^30 (W)So I purified them from everything foreign, and assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each in his work, ³¹ and I arranged ^(X)for the delivery of wood at appointed times and for the first fruits. ^(Y)Remember me, my God, for good.