5
prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil,
1which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
6
While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for
2in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes
3king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king
7
and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah,
4preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
8
And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.
9
Then I gave orders, and they
5cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
10
I also found out that
6the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each
7to his field.
11
8So I confronted the officials and said,
9"Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.
12
Then all Judah brought
10the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.
13
And
11I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan the son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah,
12for they were considered reliable, and their duty was to distribute to their brothers.
14
13Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.
15
In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses
14on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads,
15which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And
16I warned them on the day when they sold food.