19. I ordered the gates of Jerusalem to be closed on the eve of the Sabbath and not to be opened until after the Sabbath had ended. Then I put some of my own men in charge of the gates to make certain that nothing was brought in on the Sabbath.
20. Once or twice some merchants spent the night outside Jerusalem with their goods.
21. But I warned them, “If you do this again, I'll have you arrested.” From then on, they did not come on the Sabbath.
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.
29. I pray that God will punish them for breaking their priestly vows and disgracing the Levi tribe.
30. Then I made sure that the people were free from every foreign influence, and I assigned duties for the priests and Levites.
31. I also arranged for the people to bring firewood to the altar each day and for them to bring the first part of their harvest to the temple.I pray that God will bless me for the good I have done.