Nehemiah 13:1–9

Israel Separates Itself

13On that day the book of Moses was read in the hearing of the people and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God ²because they did not come to meet the Israelites^a with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them in order to curse them—but our God changed the curse into a blessing. ³So it happened when they heard the law^b that they separated all of the foreign people from Israel.

Nehemiah Brings Reform

⁴Before this, Eliashib the priest who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God—the one related to Tobiah— ⁵prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had formerly put the grain offering, the frankincense, the temple objects, tithes of grain, wine, and oil commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the offerings of the priests. ⁶During all of this, I was not in Jerusalem because in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. At the end of some days I asked permission from the king to leave. ⁷So I came to Jerusalem. And I came to learn of the wrong that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by making him a room in the courtyard of the house of God. ⁸It was very displeasing for me, and I threw all of the objects from the house of Tobiah outside of the chamber. ⁹And I spoke in order, and they cleansed the chambers. Then I returned the objects of the house of God—the grain offering and the frankincense.