Nehemiah 13

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

⁴For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.

³While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the Lord their God.

¹¹when all Israel comes before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.

¹²Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law.

²³In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

¹Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

²And he went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.

⁵Yet the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, and the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.

⁹Then Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you,

¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam. So he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you from his hand.

²⁸Though they curse, You will bless. When they rise up, they will be put to shame, but Your servant will rejoice.

⁵My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteousness of the Lord.’”

⁴⁰And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’

⁸How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?

⁹For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

²Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

³⁸And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

²⁸“The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the people of the land to obey the Law of God—along with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand,

⁴Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

¹¹Now, therefore, make a confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do His will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from your foreign wives.”

⁴⁴And on that same day men were appointed over the rooms that housed the supplies, contributions, firstfruits, and tithes. The portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites were gathered into these storerooms from the fields of the villages, because Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who were serving.

¹⁰But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were deeply disturbed that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites.

²⁸Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.

¹⁷Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters kept coming to them.

¹⁸For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

¹⁰Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim was the father of Eliashib, Eliashib was the father of Joiada,

⁴⁴And on that same day men were appointed over the rooms that housed the supplies, contributions, firstfruits, and tithes. The portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites were gathered into these storerooms from the fields of the villages, because Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who were serving.

³⁸A priest of Aaron’s line is to accompany the Levites when they collect the tenth, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of these tithes to the storerooms of the treasury in the house of our God.

²¹Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting.

²²No longer may the Israelites come near to the Tent of Meeting, or they will incur guilt and die.

¹¹They also gave money to the carpenters and builders to buy dressed stone, as well as timbers for couplings and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to deteriorate.

¹⁴Furthermore, from the day King Artaxerxes appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from his twentieth year until his thirty-second year (twelve years total), neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.

⁵and answered the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city where my fathers are buried, so that I may rebuild it.”

⁶Then the king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set a time.

²²For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, however, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.

¹⁸They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.

²⁵But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away.

¹Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

⁵and had prepared for Tobiah a large room where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the temple articles, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.

¹²Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.

¹³And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

¹At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,

¹⁰The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.

²⁸crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

¹After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

¹While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and falling facedown before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israelites—men, women, and children—gathered around him, and the people wept bitterly as well.

⁹because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.

¹⁵When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves.

¹⁶And He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

¹³When the Jewish Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables.

³When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.

⁴Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat there in horror until the evening offering.

⁵“Listen to me, O Levites,” he said. “Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers. Remove from the Holy Place every impurity.

⁴⁵They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, as David and his son Solomon had prescribed.

¹⁵When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the command of the king by the words of the Lord.

¹⁶So the priests went inside the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the Lord. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.

³⁷Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where we labor.

⁸Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.

⁴⁷So in the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers. They also set aside daily portions for the Levites, and the Levites set aside daily portions for the descendants of Aaron.

²⁸The singers were also assembled from the region around Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites,

²⁹from Beth-gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for they had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem.

⁶“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

⁷By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the Lord is contemptible.

²“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.

³⁹For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers stay. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God.”

¹⁷Then I rebuked the nobles of Judah and asked, “What is this evil you are doing—profaning the Sabbath day?

²⁵I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

³⁴because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

⁴Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.

¹⁷Thus the sin of these young men was severe in the sight of the Lord, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.

³⁷Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where we labor.

³⁸A priest of Aaron’s line is to accompany the Levites when they collect the tenth, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of these tithes to the storerooms of the treasury in the house of our God.

¹⁰Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

⁴⁴And on that same day men were appointed over the rooms that housed the supplies, contributions, firstfruits, and tithes. The portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites were gathered into these storerooms from the fields of the villages, because Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who were serving.

²²You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields.

³⁰Thus any tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.

²⁰Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

²¹Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting.

²Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.

⁷But they need not account for the money put into their hands, since they work with integrity.”

³Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will assign this responsibility to them

²Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

¹In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

¹⁵No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay the workmen, because they acted with integrity.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper.

⁷May there be peace within your walls, and prosperity inside your fortresses.”

¹⁰For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

³¹I also arranged for contributions of wood at the appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, with favor.

²²Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this as well, O my God, and show me mercy according to Your abundant loving devotion.

²⁰So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the Lord his God.

²¹He acted with all his heart in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.

¹⁹Remember me favorably, O my God, for all that I have done for this people.

³¹When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow and will cancel every debt.

²¹Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.

²¹but I warned them, “Why are you camping in front of the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on, they did not return on the Sabbath.

¹³If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,

⁸Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

²¹This is what the Lord says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

²²You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

¹²For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.

¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

¹¹So I rebuked the officials and asked, “Why has the house of God been neglected?” Then I gathered the Levites and singers together and stationed them at their posts,

²⁵I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

²saying, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates.

³This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

⁹Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right,

¹A Psalm of Asaph. God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods:

²“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

¹Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

²¹This is what the Lord says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

²²You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

²⁶They will strip off your clothes and take your fine jewelry.

¹⁷Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the Lord.

¹⁸And now, would you turn away from the Lord? If you rebel today against the Lord, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

¹³After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

¹⁴shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and of the kings of Judah and their wives, as well as the wickedness that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

⁴Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the Lord.

⁵Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?

³²It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.”

¹⁴Keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Anyone who profanes it must surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

¹⁹This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; and stand at all the other gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, all people of Judah and Jerusalem who enter through these gates.

³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval.

⁴For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

²⁶If anyone does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a strict judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.

¹⁴or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.

¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

³⁰After the priests and Levites had purified themselves, they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

¹⁴Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out my deeds of loving devotion for the house of my God and for its services.

³¹I also arranged for contributions of wood at the appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, with favor.

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

⁴But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.

³saying, “Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁶⁴These men searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.

⁶⁵The governor ordered them not to eat the most holy things until there was a priest to consult the Urim and Thummim.

¹After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

²Indeed, the Israelites have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the people of the land. And the leaders and officials have taken the lead in this unfaithfulness!”

³⁰We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons.

¹⁰Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to the guilt of Israel.

¹At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,

¹⁴Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

⁴⁴All these men had married foreign women, and some of them had children by these wives.

⁹For then I will restore pure lips to the peoples, that all may call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him shoulder to shoulder.

³Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

²⁹hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord.

³⁰We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons.

¹⁷Then I rebuked the nobles of Judah and asked, “What is this evil you are doing—profaning the Sabbath day?

⁵So Ezra got up and made the leading priests, Levites, and all Israel take an oath to do what had been said. And they took the oath.

¹³I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God likewise shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. May such a man be shaken out and have nothing!” The whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

¹¹So I rebuked the officials and asked, “Why has the house of God been neglected?” Then I gathered the Levites and singers together and stationed them at their posts,

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²These women were from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

¹³Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

¹²therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.”

²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved the child

²⁵and sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah because the Lord loved him.

²²So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, an Elamite, said to Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the people of the land, yet in spite of this, there is hope for Israel.

²⁴Who will listen to your proposal? The share of the one who went to battle will match the share of the one who stayed with the supplies. They will share alike.”

¹⁹But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

¹⁷Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters kept coming to them.

¹⁸For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

¹⁰Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim was the father of Eliashib, Eliashib was the father of Joiada,

¹At the Sheep Gate, Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests began rebuilding. They dedicated it and installed its doors. After building as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel, they dedicated the wall.

²²In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, during the reign of Darius the Persian, the heads of the families of the Levites and priests were recorded.

¹⁰But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were deeply disturbed that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites.

¹⁴O my God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who tried to intimidate me.

⁹Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel and brought you near to Himself to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them?

¹⁰He has brought you near, you and all your fellow Levites, but you are seeking the priesthood as well.

⁴Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord of Hosts.

⁵“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

¹²Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace.

¹³It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people,

²except for his immediate family—his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother,

¹⁰Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

¹¹Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.

³⁰We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons.

¹Now these are the priests and Levites who went up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

²Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

¹When David was old and full of years, he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel.

²Then he gathered all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and Levites.

¹⁴Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out my deeds of loving devotion for the house of my God and for its services.

²²Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this as well, O my God, and show me mercy according to Your abundant loving devotion.

⁴Remember me, O Lord, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

⁸O Lord, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.

⁹Do not take my soul away with sinners, or my life with men of bloodshed,

³⁴We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the Law.

⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O Lord.