Nehemiah 13:23-31·~1 min

Intermarriage Forbidden

Nehemiah sees Jews who have married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and he notices that many children can no longer speak the language of Judah. He rebukes the men sharply and forces the matter into public seriousness.

I²³n those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ²⁴Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of the other peoples, but could not speak the language of Judah. ²⁵I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair.

Nehemiah makes the people swear not to give or take such marriages and points to Solomon as a warning that even a beloved king was drawn into sin by foreign women. When a priestly descendant becomes related to Sanballat, Nehemiah drives him away and asks God to remember those who have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the Levites.

²⁶Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel— yet foreign women drew him into sin. ²⁷Must we now hear that you too are doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?” ²⁸Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me. ²⁹Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

Nehemiah purifies the priests and Levites from everything foreign, assigns each their proper duties, and arranges the appointed wood offerings and firstfruits. The chapter closes with one last prayer for God to remember him with favor.

³⁰Thus I purified the priests and Levites from everything foreign, and I assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites. ³¹I also arranged for contributions of wood at the appointed times, and for the firstfruits.

Section summaryNehemiah finds Jews who have married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and their children cannot speak the language of Judah. He rebukes them fiercely, warns them by Solomon's fall, drives away a priestly offender tied to Sanballat, purifies the priests and Levites, and orders their duties and offerings, so the book ends with covenant boundaries defended in family and priestly life alike.

Role in the chapterThis closing section gathers the chapter's deepest concern into one last reform. It ends Nehemiah not with quiet completion but with a final struggle to keep the people's worship and identity from dissolving into compromise.