In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
We have here one instance more of Nehemiah's pious zeal for the purifying of his countrymen as a peculiar people to God; that was the thing he aimed at in the use of his power, not the enriching of himself. See here, I. How they had corrupted themselves by marrying strange wives. This was complained of in Ezra's time, and much done towards a reformation, Ezr 9:1-15 and 10.
Commenting on Nehemiah 13:23-31
Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things?.... By marrying strange wives, by whom he was drawn into idolatry, Kg1 11:3, yet among many nations was there no king like him; as not for grandeur and riches, so not for wisdom, and yet was ensnared by his idolatrous wives: who was beloved of God; alluding to his name Jedidiah, which signifies beloved of...
THE VIOLATION OF THE SABBATH. (Neh. 13:15-31) In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath--The cessation of the temple services had been necessarily followed by a public profanation of the Sabbath, and this had gone so far that labor was carried on in the fields, and fish brought to the markets on the sacred day.
Commenting on Nehemiah 13:15-31