Now when these things were done, the princes came to Ezra, saying, "The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yes, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this sin."

-Ezra-

"And when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down perplexed. Then were assembled unto me everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.

"And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having torn my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great sin unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

"And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, and after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great sin, seeing that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this; O LORD God of Israel, you are righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: look, we are before you in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before you because of this."

Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very much. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel…answered and said unto Ezra,

"We have sinned against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.

"Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Arise; for this matter belongs unto you: we also will be with you: be of good courage, and do it."

And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. And they made an end with all the men that had taken foreign wives by the first day of the first month.

-Nehemiah-

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. "And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, ‘The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates of it are burned with fire.’

"And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven….

"And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence. Therefore the king said unto me, ‘Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.’

"Then I was very much afraid, and said unto the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lie desolate, and the gates of it are consumed with fire?

"And I said unto the king, if it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may build it.

"And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him) ‘for how long shall your journey be? And when will you return?’ So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

"Then said I unto them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies desolate, and the gates of it are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, ‘Let us rise up and build.’ So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

"So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half of it: for the people had a mind to work. But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the gaps began to be stopped, then they were very angry, and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

"Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, be not…afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

"And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nothing, that we returned all of us to the wall, everyone unto his work. And…from that time on…half of my servants labored in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the armor; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

"Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I, Nehemiah, had set up the doors, and the doorkeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed, that I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, (…he was a faithful man, and feared God above many) charge over Jerusalem…. …for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon came I, Nehemiah, unto the king….

-Malachi-

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. "I have loved you," says the LORD. Yet you say, ‘How have you loved us?’

"Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Says the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

"A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Says the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests that despise my name.

"And you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ You offer polluted bread upon my altar; and you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’ And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto your governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept your person? says the LORD of hosts.

"…I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, says the LORD of hosts. But you have profaned it, in that you say, the table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit of it, even his meat, is contemptible. You said also, ‘Look, what a weariness is it!’ and you have sniffed at it, says the LORD of hosts; and you brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus you brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? says the LORD.

"…Cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices unto the Lord a blemished thing: for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is to be honored among the heathen.

"And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.

"For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

"Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god. The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offers an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

"Yet you say, ‘Why?’

"Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

"…Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce… therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously.

"You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’

"When you say, ‘Everyone that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them’; or, ‘Where is the God of judgment?’

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

"And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false witnesses, and against those that oppress the hired man in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the LORD of hosts.

"For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts.

"But you said, ‘How shall we return?’

"Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.

"But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’

"In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now…says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

REFERENCES

Ezra 9:1-7, 10, 13, 15; Ezra 10:1-4; Ezra 10:16-17; Nehemiah 1:1-4; Nehemiah 2:1-3, 5-6, 11, 17-18; Nehemiah 4:6-8, 13-16; Nehemiah 6:15; Nehemiah 7:1a; Malachi 1:1-2, 6-9, 10b-14; Malachi 2:1-2, 7-9, 11-14, 15b-17 Malachi 3:1, 3, 5-7; Malachi 2:17; Malachi 3:8-10.

CHAPTER 59