17. So I confronted the nobles of Judah. “Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way?” I asked.
18. “Wasn’t it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way!”
19. Then I commanded that the gates of Jerusalem should be shut as darkness fell every Friday evening, not to be opened until the Sabbath ended. I sent some of my own servants to guard the gates so that no merchandise could be brought in on the Sabbath day.
20. The merchants and tradesmen with a variety of wares camped outside Jerusalem once or twice.
21. But I spoke sharply to them and said, “What are you doing out here, camping around the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you!” And that was the last time they came on the Sabbath.
22. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the gates in order to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.Remember this good deed also, O my God! Have compassion on me according to your great and unfailing love.
23. About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24. Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all.
25. So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land.
26. “Wasn’t this exactly what led King Solomon of Israel into sin?” I demanded. “There was no king from any nation who could compare to him, and God loved him and made him king over all Israel. But even he was led into sin by his foreign wives.
27. How could you even think of committing this sinful deed and acting unfaithfully toward God by marrying foreign women?”
28. One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, so I banished him from my presence.