Nehemiah instituted reforms to correct the breaking of Sabbath laws and intermarriage with foreign women who never embraced Judaism. In order to preserve their faith and their culture, Nehemiah made the men take a oath to not give their daughters in marriage to foreigners, nor to allow their sons or themselves to take foreign women as wives. It was not a racial issue. It was a religious and cultural issue. In a final reform, Nehemiah drove away the son of the High Priest who had married the daughter of an enemy, thus compromising the priesthood. He closes the book with a simple prayer, "Remember me with favor, o my God."