Nehemiah 13:18
Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath. Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.
The verse belongs to Nehemiah's reformation after his return from Persia, when the restraining influence of Ezra and Nehemiah had for a time been withdrawn and many had departed from the Lord, evils had crept in that threatened to pervert the nation, and idolaters had not only gained a foothold in the city but by their presence had contaminated even the precincts of the temple. The Sabbath at issue is the sign distinguishing Israelites from all other nations as worshipers of the true God. Disregard of that Sabbath came through intercourse with idolaters, when heathen merchants and traders induced Israelites to engage in traffic on the Sabbath.
The rulers could have prevented the Sabbath traffic but neglected their duty from desire to advance their own interests and to favor the ungodly, so Nehemiah fearlessly rebuked them. The Sabbath-breaking of the fathers, repeated by the present generation, had caused God to bring evil, calamity and disaster upon Israel, upon the people, and upon Jerusalem. Continuing to profane the Sabbath brings more and further wrath upon Israel.
That warning stands behind Nehemiah's action in the temple courtyard in Jerusalem, where he directed the Levites to guard the arched gates and turn away traders coming with burdened donkeys, sacks, bundles, containers and vessels so the Sabbath would not be profaned.