Key Verse Spotlight
Nehemiah 13:17 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day? "
Nehemiah 13:17
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
15 In those days I saw some men treading wine presses on the Sabbath in Judah, bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day in which they sold food.
16 Some men of Tyre also lived there, who brought in fish and all kinds of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
17 Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day?
18 Didn’t your fathers do this, and didn’t our God bring all this evil on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
19 It came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I set some of my servants over the gates, so that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day.
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Nehemiah 13:1
"On that day they read in the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and it was found written in it that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,"
Nehemiah 13:2
"because they didn’t meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them; however, our God turned the curse into a blessing."
Nehemiah 13:3
"It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel."
Nehemiah 13:4
"Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the rooms of the house of our God, being allied to Tobiah,"
Nehemiah 13:5
"had prepared for him a great room, where previously they laid the meal offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers; and the wave offerings for the priests."
Nehemiah 13:6
"But in all this, I was not at Jerusalem; for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king; and after some days I asked leave of the king,"
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