Nehemiah 13:23–30

^23*At that time I also discovered that many of the Jewish men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ^24*Half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or some other language and didn’t know how to speak our language. ^25*I reprimanded the men, called down curses on them, beat them, and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath in God’s name that never again would they or their children intermarry with foreigners. ^26*I said, “It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. He was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over all Israel, and yet he fell into this sin. ²⁷Are we then to follow your example and disobey our God by marrying foreign women?”

^28*Joiada was the son of Eliashib the High Priest, but one of Joiada’s sons married the daughter of Sanballat, from the town of Beth Horon, so I made Joiada leave Jerusalem.

²⁹Remember, O God, how those people defiled both the office of priest and the covenant you made with the priests and the Levites.

³⁰I purified the people from everything foreign; I prepared regulations for the priests and the Levites so that each one would know his duty;