[Sidenote:  Neh. 13:23-27] At that time also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab.  And their children spoke half in the language of Ashdod, but none of them could speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.  And I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair and made them swear by God, saying, ’You shall not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves.  Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these acts?  Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless foreign women led him into sin.  Shall it also be reported of you that you do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?’

[Sidenote:  Neh. 13:28, 29] And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I chased him from me.  Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the covenant of the Priesthood and of the Levites.

[Sidenote:  Neh. 13:30, 31] Thus I cleansed them from all foreigners and fixed the duties for the priests and the Levites, each for his appointed task, and the bringing of wood for the service at appointed times, and the first-fruits.  Remember it, O my God, to my credit.

I. Cruelty and Hypocrisy of the Jewish Leaders.  The fifty-sixth chapter of Isaiah presents a sharp contrast:  on the one hand a high ideal of justice toward the oppressed and tolerance toward all foreigners who sincerely desired to unite in Jehovah’s worship; on the other the sordid selfishness of the Jewish leaders, who disregarded their responsibilities and thought of religion only as a round of ceremonial observances.  The situation is very similar to that in Northern Israel in the days of Amos.  The ii Isaiah stands on the same platform as did his predecessors of the Assyrian period.  He strips fearlessly from the rulers of the community the mantle of hypocrisy with which they sought to cover their shame.  In clearest terms he declares that their first duty to God is to loose the fetters of injustice and to share their bread with the hungry.  This stirring prophetic message is the natural introduction to the reformatory work of Nehemiah.

II.  Nehemiah’s Method of Correcting the Social Evils in the Community.  Nehemiah’s address recorded in the fifth chapter of his memoirs completes the picture suggested in Isaiah 56 and 58.  The poor had been compelled by their poverty to sell their children into slavery to the rich and ruling class.  In order to pay their personal taxes they had also mortgaged their inherited fields, vineyards, and houses.  Doubtless much of the tax thus raised went into the pockets of their rulers, who preyed mercilessly upon the helpless and needy.  These crimes directly violated the laws of Deuteronomy (cf.  Deut. 23:9,