1. The Sabbath is restored (15-22)

Nehemiah saw that the people were breaking the Sabbath by treading the winepresses, transporting their goods, and selling food. Nehemiah rebuked the nobles of Judah, saying "What is this wicked thing you are doing - desecrating the Sabbath day?" This is what their ancestors had been guilty of and it was the reason God's judgment had come upon the city in the first place. Nehemiah restored the Sabbath day by ordering the doors of the city to be shut during the Sabbath. He posted guards at the gates and threatened to arrest any merchants and sellers who spent the night outside Jerusalem. Nehemiah remembered God's great love and asked the Lord for mercy to endure these trials.

2. Wrongful marriages (23-31)

Nehemiah knew his history. King Solomon, a king like no other king and loved by God, was led into sin by the foreign women he married. And now, the men of Judah were doing the same thing by marrying women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. In this way, they broke their promise to God. Even Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, married the daughter of Sanballet, an enemy of the people. Nehemiah prayed to God and purified the priests and Levites of anything foreign.