Nehemiah 13:1–9

¹On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and there was found written in it that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; ²because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and with water, and had hired Balaam against them, to curse them; but our God turned the curse into blessing. ³And it came to pass, when they heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. ⁴And before this, Eliashib the priest, who had the oversight of the chambers of the house of our God, a kinsman of Tobijah, ⁵had prepared for him a great chamber, where formerly they laid the oblations, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine and the oil, which was commanded for the Levites and the singers and the doorkeepers, and the heave-offerings of the priests. ⁶And during all that time I was not at Jerusalem; for in the two-and-thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I came to the king; and after some time I obtained leave of the king. ⁷And I came to Jerusalem, and observed the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobijah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. ⁸And it grieved me much, and I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobijah out of the chamber. ⁹And I commanded, and they purified the chambers; and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, the oblation and the frankincense.