18 Did not your fathers do likewise? Did not our God bring all this evil against us and against this city? Will you yet bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath?”
19 As the gates of Jerusalem began to cast the evening shadow before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. Some of my servants I stationed at the gates so that there would be no loads brought in on the Sabbath day.
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.