Nehemiah 13:1–9

NEHEMIAH’S FURTHER REFORMS

13At that time^v the book of Moses^w was read publicly to^B the people.^x The command was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite^y should ever enter the assembly of God,^{z 2}because they did not meet the Israelites with food and water. Instead, they hired Balaam against them to curse them,^aa but our God turned the curse into a blessing.^{ab 3}When they heard the law, they separated all those of mixed descent^ac from Israel.

⁴Now before this, the priest Eliashib^ad had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God.^ae He was a relative^C of Tobiah^{af 5}and had prepared a large room for him where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, and the tenths of grain, new wine, and fresh oil^ag prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.^ah

⁶While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to King Artaxerxes^ai of Babylon^aj in the thirty-second year of his reign.^ak It was only later that I asked the king for a leave of absence^{al 7}so I could return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of God’s house. ⁸I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the room. ⁹I ordered that the rooms be purified,^am and I had the articles of the house of God restored there, along with the grain offering and frankincense.^an