23. Also in those days I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, or Moab.
24. Of their children, half spoke the language of Ashdod, or of one of the other peoples, and none of them knew how to speak the language of Judah.
25. So I reprimanded and cursed them; I beat some of their men and pulled out their hair; and I adjured them by God: “You shall not marry your daughters to their sons nor accept any of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves!
26. Did not Solomon, the king of Israel, sin because of them? Though among the many nations there was no king like him, and though he was beloved of his God and God had made him king over all Israel, yet even he was led into sin by foreign women.
27. Must it also be heard of you that you have done this same terrible evil, betraying our God by marrying foreign women?”
28. One of the sons of Joiada, son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite! I drove him from my presence.
29. Remember against them, my God, how they defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites!
30. So I cleansed them of all foreign contamination. I established the various functions for the priests and Levites, so that each had an appointed task.
31. I also provided for the procurement of wood at stated times and for the first fruits. Remember this in my favor, my God!