Further Reforms by Nehemiah

13 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing^[a] of the people. They found^[b] written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, ² for they had not met the Israelites with food^[c] and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.) ³ When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.

⁴ But before this time, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been appointed over the storerooms^[d] of the temple of our God. ⁵ He made for himself a large storeroom where previously they had been keeping^[e] the grain offering, the incense, and the vessels, along with the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil as commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the offering for the priests.

⁶ During all this time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After some time^[f] I had requested leave of the king, ⁷ and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God. ⁸ I was very upset, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the storeroom. ⁹ Then I gave instructions that the storerooms should be purified, and I brought back the equipment^[g] of the temple of God, along with the grain offering and the incense.