Study Desk

They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David and his son Solomon.

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanks to God.

On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people. They found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God,

for they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

But prior to this time, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been appointed over the storerooms of the temple of our God.

and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God.

Then I gave instructions that the storerooms should be purified, and I brought back the equipment of the temple of God, along with the grain offering and the incense.

So I registered a complaint with the leaders, asking "Why is the temple of God neglected?" Then I gathered them and reassigned them to their positions.

Please remember me for this, O my God, and do not wipe out the kindness that I have done for the temple of my God and for its services!

Isn't this the way your ancestors acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!"

Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.

So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, "You will not marry off your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!

Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign wives?"

Please remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priesthood, and the Levites.

I also provided for the wood offering at the appointed times and also for the first fruits. Please remember me for good, O my God.

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was pure and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

When the days of their feasting were finished, Job would send for them and sanctify them; he would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job thought, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's customary practice.

Now the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord —and Satan also arrived among them.

So the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a pure and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil."