Restoring the temple
1 On that day, when the scroll from Moses was being read to the people, they found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter God's assembly.
2
This is because they hadn't met the Israelites with food and water but instead hired Balaam against them to curse them. Yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.
3
When the people heard this law, they separated out from Israel all those of mixed descent.
4
Now before this, however, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed to be in charge of the storerooms of our God's house and who was related to Tobiah,
5
prepared a large room for Tobiah to use. This was the room where they had previously kept the grain offering, the incense, and the equipment, together with the tenth-part gifts of grain, wine, and oil. These items were for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers as well as the portions for the priests.
6
I wasn't in Jerusalem while this was happening because I had gone to Babylon's King Artaxerxes in the thirty-second year of the king. After some time, I asked the king's permission
7
and returned to Jerusalem. That was when I saw the wrong that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by preparing him a room in the courtyards of God's house.
8
I was very angry and threw all of Tobiah's household furniture out of the room.
9
Then I gave orders that the rooms be purified, and I put back the temple equipment, along with the grain offering and the incense.
10
I also found out that the Levites hadn't been given their portions, so they and the singers who did the work had gone back to their fields.
11
So I scolded the officials, asking, "Why is God's house being neglected?" I gathered them together and set them in their stations.
12
Then all Judah brought the tenth-part gifts of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.
13
I appointed the priest Shelemiah, the scribe Zadok, and Pedaiah of the Levites to be in charge over the storehouses. I also appointed Hanan, Zaccur's son and Mattaniah's grandson, as their assistant. These men were considered trustworthy, and their task was to hand out shares to their colleagues.
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Remember me, my God, concerning this. Don't erase my good deeds that I have done for my God's house and for its services.