1. On that day they read in the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and it was found written in it that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,
2. because they didn’t meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; however our God turned the curse into a blessing.
3. It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.
4. Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the rooms of the house of our God, being allied to Tobiah,
5. had prepared for him a great room, where before they laid the meal offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, the singers, and the porters; and the wave offerings for the priests.
6. But in all this, I was not at Jerusalem; for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king; and after some days I asked leave of the king,
7. and I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing him a room in the courts of God’s house.
8. It grieved me severely. Therefore I threw all Tobiah’s household stuff out of the room.