9
And I gave orders, and they purified the treasuries: and I restored thither the vessels of the house of God, the offerings, and the frankincense.
10
And I understood that the portion of the Levites had not been given: and they had fled every one to his field, the Levites and the singers doing the work.
11
And I strove with the commanders, and said, Wherefore has the house of God been abandoned? and I assembled them, and set them in their place.
12
And all Juda brought a tithe of the wheat and the wine and the oil into the treasuries,
13
to the charge of Selemia the priest, and Sadoc the scribe, and Phadaea of the Levites: and next to them Anan the son of Zacchur, son of Matthanias; for they were accounted faithful: their office to distribute to their brethren.
14
Remember me, O God, in this, and let not my kindness be forgotten which I have wrought in the house of the Lord God.
15
In those days I saw in Juda treading wine-presses on the sabbath, and carrying sheaves, and loading asses with both wine, and grapes, and figs, and every burden, and bringing them into Jerusalem on the sabbath-day:
16
and I testified in the day of their sale. Also their dwelt in it bringing fish, and selling every merchandise to the children of Juda and in Jerusalem on the sabbath.
17
And I strove with the free children of Juda, and said to them, What this evil thing which ye do, and profane the sabbath-day?
18
Did not your fathers thus, and our God brought upon them and upon us and upon this city all these evils? and do ye bring additional wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath?
19
And it came to pass, when the gates were set up in Jerusalem, before the sabbath, that I spoke, and they shut the gates; and I gave orders that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and I set of my servants at the gates, that none should bring burdens on the sabbath-day.