Nehemiah 13:23-30

English Standard Version

²³ In those days also I saw the Jews ^(A)who had married women ^(B)of Ashdod, ^(C)Ammon, and ^(D)Moab. ²⁴ And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. ^25 (E)And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. ^(F)And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. ^26 (G)Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? ^(H)Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was ^(I)beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. ²⁷ Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and ^(J)act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”

²⁸ And one of the sons of ^(K)Jehoiada, the son of ^(L)Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of ^(M)Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. ^29 (N)Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood ^(O)and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

^30 (P)Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;