In those days also I saw Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, [and] of Moab.
Nehemiah's last inspection of Jerusalem finds Jews married into three enemy nations, and their children's speech gives it away. Why has this sin come back so soon after the people promised by covenant to avoid it?
Not everyone had fallen into this, and the nations named were not random neighbours:
Most of the people had purified themselves, but a certain number stayed obstinate. Encouraged by the example of the family of Eliashib the high priest, they had not broken their marriage alliances with Ammon and Moab. They had children, already grown, who did not know the language of the Jews and spoke the language of Ashdod. A third nation had joined these two: the Philistines, whose territory included Ashdod. So these three constant enemies of God's people were received into their families. They had sons in their own image. Alliance with the world never profits the people of God. We do not see here that the children of the Ashdodites learned the language of the Jews.
The influence only ever ran one way.
Nehemiah had spent years rebuilding a wall of stone. These marriages pulled down a wall he could not rebuild by hand. One writer asks what such a marriage declared:
What did it declare? That Israel was abandoning its ground of separation to God. It was breaking down the holy wall of enclosure, "the middle wall of partition" by which He had shut them off from all the peoples on the face of the earth. In truth, this was nothing less than a denial that they were God's chosen nation, a holy people to the Lord. It gave up all the privileges, blessings, and hopes of their calling.
Lost language is not a small cultural detail. The same writer draws two lessons from it — one about the people, one about their teachers:
First, we learn that becoming like the world leads to forgetting the word of God and not knowing it. Second, we learn that the teacher's true work is to give the sense of the Scriptures and to explain what they mean.
One writer applies this to a home where husband and wife do not share one faith:
There can be no union of heart in the training of the children; no joint and mutual confidence about them. One parent wants to bring them up in the instruction of the Lord. The other wants to bring them up in the principles of the world, the flesh, and the devil. As the children grow up, their sympathies are likely to fall on the second side. It is easy to see how it will end.
Nehemiah confronted the offenders himself. One writer points to the two names he raised — Solomon, and a man from the high priest's own family:
He seems to have dealt with the greatest severity, and made them swear by God: they were not to give their daughters to the sons of these nations, or take their daughters for their sons or for themselves. He shows how even Solomon had gone astray through this very thing. So there is no thought of taking an example of evil in order to make light of evil now; rather he warns from the very highest, in a day of great weakness. And further, "one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite" — there was no respect of persons — "therefore I chased him from me."
One writer looks at what the people had promised, and at what happens after Nehemiah:
Notice that the evils dealt with here are mainly ones the people had bound themselves by a covenant, with oath and curse, to avoid only a short while before. How soon they prove their own weakness, and with it the weakness of the law to improve or restrain the flesh. For the moment one faithful man deals with these evils. But once Nehemiah is gone, these evils will come back. By the days of the prophet Malachi they mark the mass of the people, and the only hope left for the godly is the coming of the Lord... All behind them was failure, all around them corruption, but all before them glory.
- Alliance. Jewish homes took in three old enemies by marriage. The children came out in the enemies' image, not the other way round.
- Surrender. The marriages denied in practice that Israel was a people set apart to God. With that went the privileges and hopes of their calling.
- Speech. Becoming like the world ends in forgetting God's word. The children's half-Ashdod speech is what that forgetting sounds like.
- Division. When parents want opposite things for their children, there is no shared confidence in raising them. The children tend to drift to the worldly side.
- Hope. One faithful man could check the decay but not cure it. By Malachi's day it marked the mass of the people, and the godly looked ahead to the Lord's coming.
And their children spoke half in the language of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
Nehemiah's last inspection of Jerusalem found a problem he could hear. The children of mixed marriages spoke their mothers' language, not their fathers'. If a home's speech shows what has shaped it, what had these homes already lost?
The wives came from three nations. One writer traces who those nations were, and what the marriages produced.
They had children, already grown, who did not know the language of the Jews and spoke the language of Ashdod. To these two nations a third was added: the Philistines, whose land included Ashdod. So these three constant enemies of the people of God were received into their families. There they had sons in their own image. Alliance with the world never profits the people of God, and we do not see here that the children of the Ashdodites learned the language of the Jews.
The influence ran one way. Nobody in these homes moved toward Israel. Older translations read the verse a little differently: the children "spoke half in the language of Ashdod." Their speech itself was mixed.
That lost language was the language of the law. One commentator links this verse to the day the law had to be read out with an interpretation.
The sacred language, the language of their fathers, had fallen out of use. In many cases it had been forgotten... So it became necessary to help the people understand the law. They had to read it clearly, or with an interpretation, give the sense, and help the people understand what was read. All this is most instructive, and in two ways. First, we learn that becoming like the world leads to forgetfulness and ignorance of the word of God. Second, the true work of the teacher is to give the sense of the Scriptures — to explain what they mean.
The speech was only the symptom. The same writer asks what these marriages declared, and points back to the king who fell the same way.
It declared that Israel was giving up the ground of separation to God. They were breaking down the holy wall that fenced them in — "the dividing wall of hostility" by which He had shut them off from all the peoples on earth. It was, in truth, nothing less than a denial that they were God's chosen nation, a holy people to the Lord. So it was a surrender of all the privileges, blessings, and hopes of their calling. No wonder Nehemiah was filled with holy indignation. He reminded them of the sad example of Solomon: "Among the 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 made even him to sin."
So why did it happen at all? One writer answers plainly.
The law forbade such marriages. But the people of Judah were more influenced by their feelings than by principles of truth — just as people are today.
The verse has long been used as a picture of what happens when a believer marries someone who does not share their faith. The children become the visible outcome.
Then, as to its effect on children, it is equally sad. These are almost sure to flow in the current with the unconverted parent... There can be no union of heart in the training of the children, no shared and mutual confidence about them. One wants to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The other wants to bring them up in the principles of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And as the children grow up, their sympathies are likely to fall on that second side. It is easy to see how it will end.
Nehemiah's response reached the top of the priesthood.
Nor could the highest religious position shield anyone here. A grandson of the high priest was son-in-law to the notorious Sanballat the Horonite. So Nehemiah chased him away. He prayed here that God would remember them as polluters of the priesthood, and of the covenant that belonged to the priests and the Levites.
- Alliance. Marriage into Ashdod, Ammon and Moab brought Israel's old enemies inside the family. Alliance with the world never profits God's people.
- Offspring. The children came out "in their own image." The influence ran one way: the Ashdodite side never learned the language of the Jews.
- Speech. Half-foreign speech proved the home was divided. One parent trains for the Lord, the other for the world.
- Scripture. Once the fathers' language is gone, the law cannot be read. Becoming like the world ends in ignorance of God's word.
- Separation. What they surrendered was their standing as a holy people. So Nehemiah acted at once, sparing no one — not even Solomon's warning, or the high priest's own grandson.
And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair, and adjured them by God [saying], Ye shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
Nehemiah's last recorded reform ends with blows, not a sermon. Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, and the verse raises two questions: how serious was that, and is such fierce zeal a pattern for us today?
The marriages were not a private matter of taste. One writer shows what they declared about Israel's whole standing before God.
This was the evil that had so deeply troubled Ezra (Ezra 9:1-3), and he worked hard to root it out. But it had started up again… Israel was abandoning the ground of separation to God. It was breaking down the holy wall around them — the "dividing wall" by which He had shut them off from all the peoples on the face of the earth. In truth it was nothing less than a denial that they were God's chosen nation — a holy people to the Lord. And it surrendered all the privileges, blessings, and hopes of their calling. No wonder Nehemiah was filled with such holy indignation.
Nehemiah does not only strike. He binds them by an oath, and then points to a king everyone in Israel admired.
Nehemiah shows no pity toward these men who, the day after a solemn alliance, could behave in this way… He shows them where such alliances had led Solomon, the greatest of Israel's kings. Solomon looked for wives first among the Moabites and Ammonites, and he turned aside to their gods (1 Kings 11:1-8).
Commentators differ over Nehemiah himself. One measures him against Ezra:
A servant who suits one state of the people may not suit another at all… Compare Ezra and Nehemiah. Nehemiah was devoted, and he turned to God again and again as the source of all his strength. Even so, one sees at once that Ezra walked on a higher level than his successor. (Compare Ezra 9:3 with Nehemiah 13:25.)
Another defends the energy as something the people of God cannot do without:
Such zeal is necessary in the times in which we live. How often we hear: bear with evil, don't judge it, wait for God to judge it. These are words that are as dangerous as they are plausible! What would have become of the congregation if Nehemiah had held to such principles? Let us take him as an example, but above all let us follow in the steps of Christ. The energy of the Spirit is just as necessary as love and grace. One should not crowd out the other. Both are equally useful for the prosperity of God's people.
Should we copy the blows? One writer explains why the prophets could act this way at all.
The prophets confronted evildoers. They cursed them, struck them, tore out their hair, and put them under solemn obligation to do the will of God (Neh. 13:25). This was because God was dealing with men in the flesh, in a time of testing. But man proved incurably wicked and beyond mending, so the trial is closed. Now man can only be in relationship with God as born of Him (John 3:5). The trial is over, and now the work is entirely by the Spirit of God.
One writer asks how much such a reform could settle, and how long it could last.
In the main, the evils dealt with are the very ones the people had, only a short while before, bound themselves by a covenant with oath and curse to avoid. How soon they have to prove their own weakness, and with it the weakness of the law either to improve or to restrain the flesh. For the moment these evils are dealt with through the faithfulness of one man. But once Nehemiah passes, these evils will return, until in Malachi's day they mark the mass of the people, and the only hope left for the godly is the coming of the Lord.
- Wall. The foreign marriages broke down the wall of separation God had put around His people. Nehemiah treated them as a denial of Israel's whole calling, not a private matter.
- Warning. He answered with an oath and with Solomon. The greatest king of Israel looked for wives among Moab and Ammon, and ended by turning to their gods.
- Zeal. Commentators differ over the man. One places Ezra on higher ground; another says the energy of the Spirit is as necessary as love and grace.
- Change. The curses and blows belonged to a time when God was still testing man in the flesh. That trial has closed, and the work is now by the Spirit alone.
- Weakness. The men he struck had bound themselves by covenant against this very sin. Law can neither improve nor restrain the flesh, and one man's reform lasts only as long as he does.