18. Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city too? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”
19. So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates to prevent any goods being brought in on the day of the Sabbath.
20. So the merchants and the sellers of merchandise spent the night outside of Jerusalem once or twice.
21. But I warned them and said to them, “Why are you spending the night opposite the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands against you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.
22. And then I told two Levites that they must purify themselves and come to guard the gates in order to consecrate the day of the Sabbath. Remember this also, my God, and take pity on me according to the greatness of your loyal love.
23. Also in those days I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24. Half of their children spoke Ashdodite and could not speak Judean, but only the tongues of other nations.
25. So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: “Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
26. Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in this way? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet the foreign women made even him sin.
27. Should we listen to you all and do this great evil, acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”
28. One from the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, who was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonote was there. I chased him away from me.
29. Remember them, my God, because of their defilements of the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.
30. So I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established responsibilities for the priests and Levites, each in his own work,
31. a contribution of the wood offering at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, my God, for good.