ad stored the
cereal-offerings, the incense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, the
new wine, and the oil. But during this time I had not been at Jerusalem;
for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the
king. Then after some time I asked leave of the king, and I came to
Jerusalem and discovered the crime that Eliashib had committed for the
Sake of Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the court of the house of
God. And it displeased me greatly; therefore I cast all the household
possessions of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I gave command that they
should cleanse the chambers, and I brought there again the vessels of the
house of God, with the cereal-offerings and the incense.

[Sidenote: Neh. 13:10-14]
And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them;
so that the Levites and the singers, who performed the service had each
fled to his field. Then I contended with the rulers and said, 'Why is the
house of God forsaken?' And I gathered them together and placed them at
their posts. And all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine
and the oil into the store-rooms. And I appointed in charge of the
store-rooms: Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah the
Levite; for they were considered faithful, and their business was to
distribute to their kinsmen. Remember me, O my God, concerning this and
forget not all my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and
for its services.

[Sidenote: Neh. 13:15-22]
At that time I saw in Judah some men treading wine-presses on the sabbath
and bringing in heaps of grain and loading asses, as also wine, grapes,
figs, and all kinds of burdens, and that they were bringing them into
Jerusalem on the sabbath; and I warned them when they sold provisions.
Tyrians also dwelt therein, who brought in fish and all kinds of wares,
and sold on the sabbath to the inhabitants of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then
I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, 'What evil thing is
this that you are doing, and thereby profaning the sabbath? Did not your
fathers do thus and did not our God bring all this calamity upon them and
upon us and upon this city? Yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by
profaning the sabbath.' Accordingly, when it began to be dark, the gates
of Jerusalem were shut before the sabbath; and I gave command that they
should not be opened until after the sabbath. And I placed some of my
servants i