26. Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!
27. Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign wives?”
28. Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.
29. Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, and the Levites.
30. So I purified them of everything foreign, and I assigned specific duties to the priests and the Levites.
31. I also provided for the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits. Please remember me for good, O my God.