Nehemiah 13:1-3

XIII.

(1-3) Reform as to mixed marriages.

(1) On that day.—Probably the season of the Feast of Tabernacles, as before. But portions were selected to be read.

They read in the book of Moses.—“It was read” in the Pentateuch, and specially Deuteronomy 23:0. This is introduced for the sake of the action taken, and the history is given in brief, with a striking and characteristic parenthesis of Nehemiah’s own concerning the curse turned into a blessing.

Therein was found written.—What to the people generally was not known.

For ever.—No Ammonite or Ammonite family could have legal standing in the congregation, “even to their tenth generation;” and this interdict was to last “for ever.” It virtually though not actually amounted to absolute exclusion.

(3) The mixed multitude.—For the “mixed multitude,” or Ereb, which plays so prominent a part in Jewish history, see on Exodus 12:38. The process here was that of shutting out heathens who were in the habit of mingling with the people in the services. In Nehemiah 9:0 it was, as we saw, the people’s separation from the practices and spirit of the heathen.