Nehemiah 13:16
There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
Nehemiah's return from Persia to reform Judah came after the people had solemnly and publicly pledged to obey God's law and then departed from the Lord when the restraining influence of Ezra and Nehemiah was withdrawn, allowing evils to creep in that threatened to pervert the nation and profane the temple and required prompt correction. The verse depicts men of Tyre dwelling at Jerusalem, together with heathen merchants and traders from the surrounding country, bringing fish and every kind of ware with laden donkeys, sacks, vessels, bundles and packs to sell to the children of Judah in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. This traffic was an open violation of the Sabbath, the sign that distinguished Israelites from all other nations as worshipers of the true God, through intercourse with idolaters.
The sellers induced many Israelites to engage in Sabbath traffic; some would not sacrifice principle, but others transgressed and joined with the heathen in trying to overcome the scruples of the more conscientious. Such profaning of the Sabbath brought added wrath upon Israel, just as the disobedience of the fathers had brought evil upon the city. The violation required fearless rebuke of rulers who neglected duty to advance their own interests, shutting the gates when it grew dark before the Sabbath until the Sabbath was past, stationing trusted servants and Levites to guard the gates of the courtyard and stand together at the arched gateway to turn back the Sabbath traffic, and threatening punishment to merchants lodging by the wall until they came no more on the Sabbath.