Study Desk

"Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, as well as the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you are charging as interest from them."

Then they said, "We ^(C1)will give it back and ^(C2)will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say." So I called the priests and made them ^(C3)take an oath to act in accordance with this ^(F1)promise.

I ^(C1)also shook out the ^(F1)front of my garment and said, "So may God shake out every person from his house and from his possessions who does not keep this ^(F2)promise; just so may he be shaken out and emptied." And ^(C2)all the assembly said, "Amen!" And they praised the LORD. Then the people acted in accordance with this ^(F2)promise.

Furthermore, since the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from ^(C1)the twentieth year to the ^(C2)thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governor's food allowance.

But the previous governors who were before me ^(F1)laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people. But I did not do so ^(C1)because of my fear of God.

I also ^(F1)applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.