Nehemiah 13:5–12

⁵He allowed Tobiah to use a large room that was intended only for storing offerings of corn and incense, the equipment used in the Temple, the offerings for the priests, and the tithes of corn, wine, and olive oil given to the Levites, to the temple musicians, and to the temple guards. ⁶While this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, because in the 32nd year that Artaxerxes^w was king of Babylon I had gone back to report to him. After some time I received his permission ⁷and returned to Jerusalem. There I was shocked to find that Eliashib had allowed Tobiah to use a room in the Temple. ⁸I was furious and threw out all Tobiah’s belongings. ⁹I gave orders for the rooms to be ritually purified and for the temple equipment, grain offerings, and incense to be put back.

^10*I also learnt that the temple musicians and other Levites had left Jerusalem and gone back to their farms, because the people had not been giving them enough to live on. ¹¹I reprimanded the officials for letting the Temple be neglected. And I brought the Levites and musicians back to the Temple and put them to work again. ^12*Then all the people of Israel again started bringing to the temple storerooms their tithes of corn, wine, and olive oil.