25. So I reprimanded those Jews, cursed them, beat some of them, and pulled out their hair. I made them swear by God: “We won’t allow our daughters to marry their sons, and we won’t allow their daughters to marry us or our sons.”
26. I said, “Wasn’t it because of marriages like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? There wasn’t a king like him among all nations. God loved him, and God made him king of all Israel. But his non-Israelite wives led him to sin.
27. Should we follow your example, commit such a serious crime against our God, and be unfaithful to him by marrying non-Israelite women?”
28. Even one of Joiada’s sons was a son-in-law of Sanballat from Beth Horon. (Joiada was the son of the chief priest Eliashib.) I chased Joiada’s son away from me.
29. ⌊Nehemiah prayed,⌋ “Remember them, my God, because they have contaminated the priestly office and the promise you made to the priests and Levites.”
30. So I cleansed them from everything that was foreign. I assigned duties to the priests and Levites. Each one had his own assignment.
31. I also arranged for delivering wood at regular times and for bringing the first produce to be harvested.⌊Nehemiah prayed,⌋ “Remember me, my God, for my benefit.”