³⁸ Many other people^(A) went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

Nehemiah’s Final Reforms

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

²⁰ and all the foreign people there; all the kings of Uz;^(A) all the kings of the Philistines^(B) (those of Ashkelon,^(C) Gaza,^(D) Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod);