28 Now 2the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the templeservants and 3all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all those who hadknowledge and understanding,
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are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are 4taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God'slaw, which was giventhroughMoses, God'sservant, and to keep and to observeall the commandments of GOD our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes;
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and 5that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.
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As 6for the peoples of the land who bringwares or anygrain on the sabbathday to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holyday; and we will forego the crops the 7seventhyear and the 8exaction of everydebt.
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We also placed ourselves underobligation to contributeyearly9one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God:
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for the 10showbread*, for the continual grain offering, for the continualburntoffering, the sabbaths, the newmoon, for the appointedtimes, for the holythings and for the sinofferings to makeatonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God.
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Likewise 11we castlots12for the supply of wood among the priests, the Levites and the people so that they might bring it to the house of our God, according to our fathers'households, at fixedtimesannually, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law;
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and that they might bring the firstfruits of our ground and 13the firstfruits of all the fruit of everytree to the house of the LORDannually,
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and 14bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God.
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15We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of everytree, the newwine and the oil16to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the 17tithe of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the ruraltowns.
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18The priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levitesreceivetithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of 19the storehouse.
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For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the 20contribution of the grain, the newwine and the oil to the chambers; there are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers and the singers. Thus 21we will not neglect the house of our God.