19. So I ordered the doors shut at sunset before the Sabbath. The gates were not to be opened until the Sabbath was over. I put my servants at the gates. So no load could come in on the Sabbath.
20. Once or twice traders and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem.
21. So I warned them. I said, “Why are you spending the night by the wall? If you do it again, I will force you away.” After that, they did not come back on the Sabbath.
22. Then I ordered the Levites to purify themselves. I told them to go and guard the city gates. They were to make sure the Sabbath remained holy.Remember me, my God, for this. Have mercy on me because of your great love.
23. In those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.
24. Half their children were speaking the language of Ashdod or some other place. They couldn’t speak the language of Judah.
25. I argued with those people. I put curses on them. I hit some of them and pulled out their hair. I forced them to make a promise to God. I said, “Do not let your daughters marry the sons of foreigners. Do not take the daughters of foreigners as wives for your sons or yourselves.
26. Foreign women made King Solomon of Israel sin. There was never a king like him in any of the nations. God loved Solomon. God made him king over all Israel. But foreign women made Solomon sin.
27. And now you are not obedient when you do this evil thing. You are unfaithful to our God when you marry foreign wives.”
28. Joiada was the son of Eliashib the high priest. One of Joiada’s sons married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, who was not a Jew. So I forced Joiada’s son away from me.
29. Remember them, my God. They made the priesthood unclean. They made the agreement of the priests and Levites unclean.
30. So I purified them of everything that was foreign. I appointed duties for the priests and Levites. Each man had his own job.