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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Nehemiah 13 GNT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/nehemiah/13.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/nehemiah/13-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">GNT</a> > Nehemiah 13</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../nehemiah/12.htm" title="Nehemiah 12">◄</a> Nehemiah 13 <a href="../esther/1.htm" title="Esther 1">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Good News Translation</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s">Separation from Foreigners</h3><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_1"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.1" class="v16_13_1">1</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.1!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> When the Law of Moses was being read aloud to the people, they came to the passage that said that no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to be permitted to join God's people. </span><span class="v16_13_2"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.2" class="v16_13_2">2</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.2!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> This was because the people of Ammon and Moab did not give food and water to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Instead, they paid money to Balaam to curse Israel, but our God turned the curse into a blessing. </span><span class="v16_13_3"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.3" class="v16_13_3">3</span>When the people of Israel heard this law read, they excluded all foreigners from the community.</span></p><h3 class="s">Nehemiah's Reforms</h3><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_4"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.4" class="v16_13_4">4</span>The priest Eliashib, who was in charge of the Temple storerooms, had for a long time been on good terms with Tobiah. </span><span class="v16_13_5"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.5" class="v16_13_5">5</span>He allowed Tobiah to use a large room that was intended only for storing offerings of grain and incense, the equipment used in the Temple, the offerings for the priests, and the tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil given to the Levites, to the Temple musicians, and to the Temple guards. </span><span class="v16_13_6"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.6" class="v16_13_6">6</span>While this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, because in the thirty-second year that Artaxerxes<a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.6!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> was king of Babylon I had gone back to report to him. After some time I received his permission </span><span class="v16_13_7"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.7" class="v16_13_7">7</span>and returned to Jerusalem. There I was shocked to find that Eliashib had allowed Tobiah to use a room in the Temple. </span><span class="v16_13_8"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.8" class="v16_13_8">8</span>I was furious and threw out all of Tobiah's belongings. </span><span class="v16_13_9"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.9" class="v16_13_9">9</span>I gave orders for the rooms to be ritually purified and for the Temple equipment, grain offerings, and incense to be put back.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_10"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.10" class="v16_13_10">10</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.10!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> I also learned that the Temple musicians and other Levites had left Jerusalem and gone back to their farms, because the people had not been giving them enough to live on. </span><span class="v16_13_11"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.11" class="v16_13_11">11</span>I reprimanded the officials for letting the Temple be neglected. And I brought the Levites and musicians back to the Temple and put them to work again. </span><span class="v16_13_12"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.12" class="v16_13_12">12</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.12!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Then all the people of Israel again started bringing to the Temple storerooms their tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil. </span><span class="v16_13_13"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.13" class="v16_13_13">13</span>I put the following men in charge of the storerooms: Shelemiah, a priest; Zadok, a scholar of the Law; and Pedaiah, a Levite. Hanan, the son of Zaccur and grandson of Mattaniah, was to be their assistant. I knew I could trust these men to be honest in distributing the supplies to the other workers.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_14"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.14" class="v16_13_14">14</span>Remember, my God, all these things that I have done for your Temple and its worship.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_15"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.15" class="v16_13_15">15</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.15!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> At that time I saw people in Judah pressing juice from grapes on the Sabbath. Others were loading grain, wine, grapes, figs, and other things on their donkeys and taking them into Jerusalem; I warned them not to sell anything on the Sabbath. </span><span class="v16_13_16"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.16" class="v16_13_16">16</span>Some people from the city of Tyre were living in Jerusalem, and they brought fish and all kinds of goods into the city to sell to our people on the Sabbath. </span><span class="v16_13_17"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.17" class="v16_13_17">17</span>I reprimanded the Jewish leaders and told them, “Look at the evil you're doing! You're making the Sabbath unholy. </span><span class="v16_13_18"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.18" class="v16_13_18">18</span>This is exactly why God punished your ancestors when he brought destruction on this city. And yet you insist on bringing more of God's anger down on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_19"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.19" class="v16_13_19">19</span>So I gave orders for the city gates to be shut at the beginning of every Sabbath, as soon as evening<a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.19!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> began to fall, and not to be opened again until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my men at the gates to make sure that nothing was brought into the city on the Sabbath. </span><span class="v16_13_20"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.20" class="v16_13_20">20</span>Once or twice merchants who sold all kinds of goods spent Friday night outside the city walls. </span><span class="v16_13_21"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.21" class="v16_13_21">21</span>I warned them, “It's no use waiting out there for morning to come. If you try this again, I'll use force on you.” From then on they did not come back on the Sabbath. </span><span class="v16_13_22"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.22" class="v16_13_22">22</span>I ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to go and guard the gates to make sure that the Sabbath was kept holy.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_22">Remember me, O God, for this also, and spare me because of your great love.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_23"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.23" class="v16_13_23">23</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.23!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> At that time I also discovered that many of the Jewish men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. </span><span class="v16_13_24"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.24" class="v16_13_24">24</span>Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or some other language and didn't know how to speak our language. </span><span class="v16_13_25"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.25" class="v16_13_25">25</span>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. </span><span class="v16_13_26"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.26" class="v16_13_26">26</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.26!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> I told them, “It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. Here was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over all of Israel, and yet he fell into this sin. </span><span class="v16_13_27"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.27" class="v16_13_27">27</span>Are we then to follow your example and disobey our God by marrying foreign women?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_28"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.28" class="v16_13_28">28</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Neh.13.28!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> 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.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_29"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.29" class="v16_13_29">29</span>Remember, God, how those people defiled both the office of priest and the covenant you made with the priests and the Levites.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_30"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.30" class="v16_13_30">30</span>I purified the people from everything foreign; I prepared regulations for the priests and the Levites so that all of them would know their duties; </span><span class="v16_13_31"><span class="reftext" id="Neh.13.31" class="v16_13_31">31</span>I arranged for the wood used for burning the offerings to be brought at the proper times, and for the people to bring their offerings of the first grain and the first fruits that ripened.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v16_13_31">Remember all this, O God, and give me credit for it.</span></p><a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">13.6: </char><char style="fk" closed="false">Artaxerxes: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">As emperor of Persia, Artaxerxes also had the title “King of Babylon.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">13.19: </char><char style="fk" closed="false">evening: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Jewish day begins at sunset.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 1992 American Bible Society. 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