Chapter 37
Nehemiah cleanses the Jews from foreign wives and establishes the orders of priests and Levites, each in his service; and finally recommends himself to the memory of God for good.
[Nehemiah 13:30] -- But in those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, etc. And now in the holy Church they marry foreign wives, whoever tarnishes his conscience with the pleasures of crimes, which properly belong to the pagans. And the children born from these do not know how to speak Jewish, as the deeds which arose from a corrupted mind reveal nothing of pious profession; but rather sound like pagan folly than ecclesiastical chastity. For Ashdod, which is called Asdod in Hebrew, is interpreted as "word of fire." Therefore, according to the allegorical sense, the sons of foreign wives speak Ashdodite, when deeds begotten through wantonness expect the retribution of eternal combustion. Hence, rightfully, the parents of such are not only rebuked and cursed by Nehemiah, but some are also beaten; because it is necessary for the erring to be more severely restrained by teachers of the truth, so that they may learn to be happily transferred from the word of avenging fire to the word of divine praise. But also heretics, when they devote themselves more to the studies of gentile philosophy, dialectics, and rhetoric than to ecclesiastical simplicity, it is not surprising if their listeners speak according to the tongue of the people, and the people indeed speak, turning over the holy scriptures with their mouth, but interpreting these with erratic and pagan sense.
[Nehemiah 13:30] -- Therefore, I cleansed them from all foreigners, etc. An apt and fitting end in all respects for the edification of the holy city and the temple of the Lord, so that with the citizens cleansed of every stain of foreign and alien pollution from God, the orders of priests and Levites might rightly be preserved in their ministry; so that the institution of the master of the Church, royally established, may remain and grow in goodness, encouraging the people disciplined from all sin; for indeed this people, among other things, offers wood to the Lord to sustain the fire of the altar, as they perform works of virtues surely worthy of divine consecration. For if wood did not sometimes signify something good, the prophet would not say: "Then shall all the trees of the forest rejoice before the Lord" (Psalm 95). But wood burns and is consumed on the altar of holocausts, when works of justice in the hearts of teachers are perfected by the flame of charity. Rightly then does such a founder and dedicant of the city, after many labors of his devotion, commend himself to the memory of his Creator and the Giver of all good things. And You, supreme Father of lights, from whom every good gift and every perfect gift descends; who have bestowed upon me, most humble of your servants, both the love and the help to consider the wonders of your law; who in the treasury of the prophetic volume has granted me the grace not only to embrace the old things, but also to find new gifts by the uplifting of the old, and to bring them forth for the use of my fellow servants, remember me, my God, for good (James 1).