Discovery BoxNehemiah 13:8-11 
Context13:8 I was very upset, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the storeroom. 13:9 Then I gave instructions that the storerooms should be purified, and I brought back the equipment 1 of the temple of God, along with the grain offering and the incense.
13:10 I also discovered that the grain offerings for the Levites had not been provided, and that as a result the Levites and the singers who performed this work had all gone off to their fields. 13:11 So I registered a complaint with the leaders, asking “Why is the temple of God neglected?” Then I gathered them and reassigned them to their positions. 2
Nehemiah 13:17-20
Context13:17 So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 13:18 Isn’t this the way your ancestors 3 acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!”
13:19 When the evening shadows 4 began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered 5 the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned 6 some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day. 13:20 The traders and sellers of all kinds of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.
Nehemiah 13:23-26
Context13:23 Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 13:24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod (or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned 7 ) and were unable to speak the language of Judah. 13:25 So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off 8 your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! 13:26 Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made 9 him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!
Nehemiah 13:28
Context13:28 Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.
1 tn On the usage of this Hebrew word see HALOT 478-79 s.v. כְּלִי.
2 tn Heb “and I stood them on their standing.”
3 tn Heb “your fathers.”
4 tn Heb “the gates of Jerusalem grew dark.”
5 tn Heb “said” (so also in v. 22).
6 tn Heb “caused to stand.”
7 tn Heb “people and people.”
8 tn Heb “give.”
9 tn Heb “gave.”
