Nehemiah 13:23–30

²³In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. ^k24Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples but could not speak Hebrew. ^lm25I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men, and pulled out their hair. ⁿI forced them to take an oath ^obefore God and said: “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or yourselves! ^p26Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin. ^q27Why then should we hear about you doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?” ^r

²⁸Even one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of Eliashib the high priest, ^shad become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. ^tSo I drove him away from me. ^u

²⁹Remember them, my God, for defiling the priesthood as well as the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. ^v

³⁰So I purified them from everything foreign ^wand assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites. ^x