131 On that day there was read in the book of Moses, in the ears of the people, and it hath been found written in it that an Ammonite and Moabite doth not come into the assembly of God—unto the age, 2 because they have not come before the sons of Israel with bread and with water, and hire against them Balaam to revile them, and our God turneth the reviling into a blessing. 3 And it cometh to pass, at their hearing the law, that they separate all the mixed people from Israel. 4 And before this Eliashib the priest, appointed over chambers of the house of our God, 'is' a relation of Tobiah, 5 and he maketh for him a great chamber, and there they were formerly putting the present, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithe of the corn, the new wine, and the oil—the commanded thing of the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers—and the heave-offering of the priests. 6 And during all this I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty and second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon did I come unto the king, and at the end of days I have asked of the king, 7 and I come in to Jerusalem, and understand concerning the evil that Eliashib hath done for Tobiah, to make to him a chamber in the courts of the house of God, 8 and it is very displeasing to me, and I cast all the vessels of the house of Tobiah without, out of the chamber, 9 and I speak, and they cleanse the chambers, and I bring back thither the vessels of the house of God with the present and the frankincense.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Nehemiah 13:1-9
Commentary on Nehemiah 13:1-9
(Read Nehemiah 13:1-9)
Israel was a peculiar people, and not to mingle with the nations. See the benefit of publicly reading the word of God; when it is duly attended to, it discovers to us sin and duty, good and evil, and shows wherein we have erred. We profit, when we are thus wrought upon to separate from evil. Those that would drive sin out of their hearts, the living temples, must throw out its household stuff, and all the provision made for it; and take away all the things that are the food and fuel of lust; this is really to mortify it. When sin is cast out of the heart by repentance, let the blood of Christ be applied to it by faith, then let it be furnished with the graces of God's Spirit, for every good work.