Nehemiah 5:14–18

Nehemiah as Governor

¹⁴Moreover, from the day that I was put in command to be their governor in the land of Judah, from ^athe twentieth year to the ^bthirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my ¹relatives have eaten the governor’s food allowance.

¹⁵But the former governors who were before me ¹laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty ²shekels of silver; even their young men exerted their power over the people. But I did not do so ^abecause of the fear of God.

¹⁶I also took hold of the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my young men were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷Moreover, ^athere were at my table 150 Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.

¹⁸Now ^athat which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet for all this ^bI did not require the governor’s food allowance, because the slavery was heavy on this people.