² because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam^(A) to call a curse down on them.^(B) (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.)^{(C) 3} When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.^(D)

⁴ Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms^(E) of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,^(F)