n charge of the gates, and commanded that no burden should be
brought in on the sabbath. So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of
wares spent the night without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I warned them
and said to them, 'Why do you spend the night before the wall? If ye do
so again, I will lay hands on you.' From that time forth they came no more
on the sabbath. Remember, O my God, this also to my credit and show me
mercy according to the greatness of thy loving-kindness.

[Sidenote: Neh. 13:23-27]
At that time also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of
Ammon, and of Moab. And their children spoke half in the language of
Ashdod, but none of them could speak in the Jews' language, but according
to the language of each people. And I contended with them and cursed them
and struck some of them and pulled out their hair and made them swear by
God, saying, 'You shall not give your daughters to their sons nor take
their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon
king of Israel sin by these acts? Yet among many nations there was no king
like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all
Israel; nevertheless foreign women led him into sin. Shall it also be
reported of you that you do all this great evil, to trespass against our
God in marrying foreign women?'

[Sidenote: Neh. 13:28, 29]
And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was
the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I chased him from me.
Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the covenant of the
Priesthood and of the Levites.

[Sidenote: Neh. 13:30, 31]
Thus I cleansed them from all foreigners and fixed the duties for the
priests and the Levites, each for his appointed task, and the bringing of
wood for the service at appointed times, and the first-fruits. Remember
it, O my God, to my credit.

I. Cruelty and Hypocrisy of the Jewish Leaders. The fifty-sixth chapter
of Isaiah presents a sharp contrast: on the one hand a high ideal of
justice toward the oppressed and tolerance toward all foreigners who
sincerely desired to unite in Jehovah's worship; on the other the sordid
selfishness of the Jewish leaders, who disregarded their responsibilities
and thought of religion only as a round of ceremonial observances. The
situation is very similar to that in Northern Israel in the days of Amos.
The II Isaiah stands on the same platform as did his predecessors of the