Nehemiah 13:2

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
because they did not meet the Israelites with food and water. Instead, they hired Balaam against them to curse them, but our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Hebrew Names Version
because they didn't meet the children of Yisra'el with bread and with water, but hired Bil`am against them, to curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.

King James Version
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

English Standard Version
for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.

New Century Version
The Ammonites and Moabites had not welcomed the Israelites with food and water. Instead, they had hired Balaam to put a curse on Israel. (But our God turned the curse into a blessing.)

New English Translation
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.)

Amplified Bible
because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.

New American Standard Bible
because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

World English Bible
because they didn't meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: and our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Legacy Standard Bible
because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Berean Standard Bible
because they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but had hired Balaam to call down a curse against them (although our God had turned the curse into a blessing).

Contemporary English Version
This was because they had refused to give food and water to Israel and had hired Balaam to call down a curse on them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Complete Jewish Bible
because they did not supply the people of Isra'el with food and water, but hired Bil‘am against them to put a curse on them — although our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Darby Translation
because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and with water, and had hired Balaam against them, to curse them; but our God turned the curse into blessing.

Easy-to-Read Version
That law was written because those people didn't give the Israelites food and water. And they had paid Balaam to say a curse against the Israelites. But our God changed that curse and made it a blessing for us.

George Lamsa Translation
Because they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Baalam to curse them; but our God turned his curses into blessings.

Good News Translation
This was because the people of Ammon and Moab did not give food and water to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Instead, they paid money to Balaam to curse Israel, but our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Lexham English Bible
because they did not come to meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them in order to curse them—but our God changed the curse into a blessing.

Literal Translation
because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. But our God turned the curse to a blessing.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
because they mett not the children of Israel wt bred and water, and hyred Balaam against the, that he shulde curse them: neuertheles oure God turned ye curse in to a blessynge.

American Standard Version
because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Bible in Basic English
Because they did not give the children of Israel bread and water when they came to them, but got Balaam to put a curse on them: though the curse was turned into a blessing by our God.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them that he should curse them: and our God turned the curse into a blessing.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them; howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

King James Version (1611)
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread, and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them: but our God turned the curse into a blessing.

English Revised Version
because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
for thei metten not the sones of Israel with breed and watir, and thei hiriden ayens the sones of Israel Balaam, for to curse hem; and oure God turnede the cursyng in to blessyng.

Update Bible Version
because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: nevertheless our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Webster's Bible Translation
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Baalam against them, that he should curse them: but our God turned the curse into a blessing.

New King James Version
because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

New Living Translation
For they had not provided the Israelites with food and water in the wilderness. Instead, they hired Balaam to curse them, though our God turned the curse into a blessing.

New Life Bible
It was because they did not meet the sons of Israel with food and water, but paid Balaam to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into good.

New Revised Standard
because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
because they met not the sons of Israel, with bread and with water, - but hired against them Balaam, to curse them, although our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water: and they hired against them Balaam, to curse them, and our God turned the curse into blessing.

Revised Standard Version
for they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them--yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Young's Literal Translation
because they have not come before the sons of Israel with bread and with water, and hire against them Balaam to revile them, and our God turneth the reviling into a blessing.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

Contextual Overview

¹Also on that same day there was a reading from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. It was found written there that no Ammonite or Moabite was permitted to enter the congregation of God, because they hadn't welcomed the People of Israel with food and drink; they even hired Balaam to work against them by cursing them, but our God turned the curse into a blessing. When they heard the reading of The Revelation, they excluded all foreigners from Israel. ⁴Some time before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of The Temple of God. He was close to Tobiah and had made available to him a large storeroom that had been used to store Grain-Offerings, incense, worship vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil for the Levites, singers, and security guards, and the offerings for the priests. ⁶When this was going on I wasn't there in Jerusalem; in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon, I had traveled back to the king. But later I asked for his permission to leave again. I arrived in Jerusalem and learned of the wrong that Eliashib had done in turning over to him a room in the courts of The Temple of God. I was angry, really angry, and threw everything in the room out into the street, all of Tobiah's stuff. Then I ordered that they ceremonially cleanse the room. Only then did I put back the worship vessels of The Temple of God, along with the Grain-Offerings and the incense.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Because: Matthew 25:40

hired Balaam: Numbers 22:3-6, Joshua 24:9, Joshua 24:10

our God: Numbers 23:8-11, Numbers 23:18, Numbers 24:5-10, Deuteronomy 23:5, Psalms 109:28, Micah 6:5

Reciprocal: Numbers 22:5 - sent Numbers 22:6 - curse me Numbers 24:10 - I called Deuteronomy 23:3 - Ammonite Deuteronomy 23:4 - because they hired Proverbs 26:2 - so Jeremiah 49:1 - their king

Cross-References

Genesis 13:1
So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.

Genesis 13:3
He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God .

Genesis 13:10
Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God 's garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east. That's how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom. The people of Sodom were evil—flagrant sinners against God . After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, "Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I'll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I'm giving it all to you." Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God .

Genesis 13:12
So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold. He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God . Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also rich in sheep and cattle and tents. But the land couldn't support both of them; they had too many possessions. They couldn't both live there—quarrels broke out between Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living on the land at the time. Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we're family. Look around. Isn't there plenty of land out there? Let's separate. If you go left, I'll go right; if you go right, I'll go left." Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God 's garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east. That's how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.

Genesis 13:13
The people of Sodom were evil—flagrant sinners against God .

Proverbs 10:22
God 's blessing makes life rich; nothing we do can improve on God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Because they met not the children of Israel with bread,.... The same reason is given, and what follows in this verse is observed in

Deuteronomy 23:4;

Deuteronomy 23:4- : Deuteronomy 23:4- :.