20. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kind of merchandise lodged outside Jerusalem.
21. So I warned them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night next to the wall? If you do so again, I will send you away by force.” From that time on they stopped coming on the Sabbath.
22. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves so that they could come and, as guardians of the gates, sanctify the Sabbath day.Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to Your abundant mercy.
23. Moreover, in those days I also saw Jews who had married the women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
24. Half of their children spoke in the language of Ashdod, yet none of them could recognize the language of the Jews. This was true language by language.
25. So I confronted them and cursed them. Some of the men I beat. Others, I plucked out their hair. Also, I made them swear an oath by God and said to them, “You shall neither give your daughters to their sons, nor marry their daughters to your sons or to yourselves.