Nehemiah 13:4-14 - Nehemiah Brings Reform
4 Before this, Eliashib the priest had been placed over the rooms of the house of our God. He was a friend of Tobiah. 5 Had made a great room ready for him. This is where they once kept the meal offerings, the perfume, the vessels and the tenths of the grain and wine and oil. They were given by order to the Levites and the music-makers and the gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
6 I was not at Jerusalem all this time in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon. I went to the king; and after some days, I got the king to let me go. 7 I went to Jerusalem. It was clear to me what evil Eliashib had done for Tobiah by making ready for him a room in the buildings of the house of God. 8 It was evil in my eyes so I had all Tobiah's things removed from the room. 9 Then I gave orders, and they made the rooms clean. I put the vessels of the House of God, along with the meal offerings and the perfume, back in the rooms. 10 I saw that the Levites had not been given what was needed for their support. So the Levites and the music-makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his field. 11 Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said: Why has the house of God been given up? I got them together and put them in their places. 12 All Judah came with the tenth part of the grain and wine and oil and put it into the storehouses. 13 I made controllers over the storehouses, Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and with them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur the son of Mattaniah. They were taken to be honest men and their business was the distribution of these things to their brothers.
14 Nehemiah's prayer: Keep me in mind, O my God, in connection with this, and do not let the good which I have done for the house of my God and its worship go from your memory completely.