Nehemiah returns and restores order
Returning to Jerusalem, Nehemiah expelled Tobiah's household goods from a temple chamber, restored the Levites' portions, closed the gates against Sabbath trade, and confronted marriages that endangered the community's faithfulness. He purified the priests and Levites and restored the appointed offerings (Nehemiah 13:1-31).
After Nehemiah's return to Artaxerxes in the king's thirty-second year
1At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2because they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but had hired Balaam to call down a curse against them (although our God had turned the curse into a blessing). 3As soon as the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all of foreign descent.