Contemplative Bible Reading

Nehemiah 13:23-25 (New Living Translation)

23 About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all. 25 So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land.

I suppose this falls under #toughlove (tough love for those of us who still try to communicate in English).

Some of the men of Judah are doing the same thing that caused the great captivity in Babylon. They had promised on several occasions over several generations to stop this. Yet, here we go again.

The response of Nehemiah? He beat them. He pulled out their hair. Note, he didn’t pull out his own hair in frustration. He pulled out their hair in anger.

That had to hurt. That was extreme. That is the best example of righteous indignation I can find recently.