They are making for themselves a strange dialect, a mixture of the two languages they have spoken; it is half Jewish, half Philistine.
'Their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people,' xiii.

24.
Poor Nehemiah must have been filled with sorrow and bitter disappointment, as he found Jerusalem and its people in such a disgraceful condition.

He had left the holy city like the garden of the Lord, he comes back to find the trail of the serpent all over his paradise.

They did so well whilst he was there, they wandered to the right hand and the left so soon as he was parted from them.
Nor is Nehemiah the only one who has had this bitter disappointment; many a parent, many a teacher, many a friend can enter into his feelings, for they have gone through the same.
The young King Joash 'did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.' But as soon as the old man was in his grave all was changed, and he did instead that which was evil.
And Joash has many followers, those who do well so long as they are under good and holy influence, and who do so badly when that influence is removed.
The young man, with the anxious, careful mother, who does so well as long as she lives, and who wanders from the right path as soon as she is taken from him; the young woman, who, whilst living under her parents' roof, sheltered and guarded by wise restrictions from all that would harm her, seems not far from the Kingdom of God, but, who, leaving home and becoming her own mistress, drifts into frivolity and carelessness; the man or woman who, when removed from good and holy influence, falls away from God and goes backwards; all these are followers of Joash, all these cause pain and distress to those who watch over their souls.
What is the reason of this sad change?
Why is it that some only stand firm so long as they are under the care and influence of others?
The Master has answered the question.

He tells us the reason.
'These have no root.' Last Christmas we had in our house a large green fir-tree.