d entered into a solemn obligation and took oath to walk in
God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe
and do all the commands of Jehovah our Lord, and his ordinances and his
statutes; and that we would neither give our daughters to the peoples of
the land nor take their daughters as wives for our sons; and that, if the
peoples of the land should bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to
sell, we would not buy of them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and that
on the seventh year we would leave the land uncultivated and would refrain
from the exaction of any debt.

[Sidenote: Neh. 10:32-39]
We also imposed upon ourselves the obligation to give yearly the third
part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the bread
that was set forth, and for the continual burnt-offering, for the
sabbaths, the new moons, the fixed feasts, and the holy things, and for
the sin-offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of
the house of our God. And we cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the
people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God,
according to our father's houses, at appointed times year by year, to burn
upon the altar of Jehovah our God, as it is prescribed in the law; and to
bring the earliest products of our ground, and the first of all fruit of
every kind of tree year by year, to the temple of Jehovah; also the
first-born of our sons and of our cattle, as is prescribed in the law, and
the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of
God to the priests who minister in the house of our God; and that we
should bring the first bread baked of our dough, the fruit of every kind
of tree, the new wine and the oil, to the priests, in the chambers of the
house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; and that
they, the Levites, should receive the tithes in all the cities of our
agricultural districts. And that the priest the son of Aaron should be
with the Levites, when the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes
to the house of our God, to the chambers, into the store-house. For the
Israelites and the sons of Levi shall bring the gifts of grain, of new
wine, and of oil, into the chambers, where are the vessels of the
sanctuary, and the priests who minister and the porters and the singers,
and that we would not neglect the house of our God.

I. The Ezra Tradition. The tradition regarding Ezra and his w