22. I ordered the Levites to make themselves holy and to guard the gates on the Sabbath, so that it would be kept holy.God is truly merciful, and I pray that he will treat me with kindness and bless me for doing this.
23. I discovered that some Jewish men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24. About half of their children could not speak Hebrew—they spoke only the language of Ashdod or some other foreign language.
25. So in my anger, I called down curses on those men. I had them beaten and even pulled out the hair of some of them. Then I made them promise:In the name of God we solemnly promise not to let our sons and daughters marry foreigners.
26. God dearly loved King Solomon of Israel and made him the greatest king on earth, but Solomon's foreign wives led him into sin.
27. So we will obey you and not rebel against our God by marrying foreign women.
28. Jehoiada, the son of the high priest Eliashib, had a son who had married a daughter of Sanballat from Horon, and I forced his son to leave.