Study Desk

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

Then they said, "We ^(k)will give it back and ^(l)will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say." So I called the priests and ^(m)took an oath from them that they would do according to this ^[c]promise.

I ⁽ⁿ⁾also shook out the ^[d]front of my garment and said, "Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this ^[e]promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied." And ^(o)all the assembly said, "Amen!" And they praised the Lord . Then the people did according to this ^[f]promise.

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

But the former governors who were before me ^[h]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 ^(r)because of the fear of God.

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