Nehemiah 13:1–9

Nehemiah’s Final Reforms

On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God,^a because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam^b to call a curse down on them.^c (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.)^d When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.^e

Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms^f of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,^g and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes^h of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxesⁱ king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib^j had done in providing Tobiah^k a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.^l I gave orders to purify the rooms,^m and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.ⁿ