The Bible Study Podcast, episode 635.

Today, the Bible Study podcast continues and concludes the study of the book of Nehemiah with chapter 13.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

Nehemiah is going to wrap things up so that he can return to his job. Remember he was the cup bearer of the king when all

of this started when he first heard about the plight of the people in Jerusalem, and God

moved his heart such that he came. Now he's going to do some additional reforms, and then

we're going to wrap this up. Chapter 13, on that day, the book of Moses was read aloud in the

hearing of the people, and there it was found written that no ammonite or moabite should be

admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food

and water but had hired Balaam to call down a curse on them. Our God, however, turned the curse

into a blessing. When the people heard this, they excluded from Israel all who were a foreign

descent. Before this, Eliasheb, the priest, had been put in charge

of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had

provided him with a large room, formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple

articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians, and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the 32nd year of Ardazerxes king of Babylon, I had returned to the king.

Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the

evil thing Eliasheb had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.

I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobias household goods out of the room.

I gave orders to purify the rooms and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God

with the grain offerings and the incense. I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not

been given to them and that all the Levites and musicians

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