¹⁴And that’s not all. I was appointed as governor of Judah in the 20th year that Artaxerxes was king of Persia. I remained in that position until his 32nd year. During those 12 years, I and my relatives didn’t eat the food that was provided for my table.

¹⁵But there had been governors before me. They had put a heavy load on the people. They had taken a pound of silver from each of them. They had also taken food and wine from them. Their officials had acted like high and mighty rulers over them.

But I have great respect for God. So I didn’t act like that. ¹⁶Instead, I spent all of my time working on this wall. All of my men were gathered there to work on it too. We didn’t receive any land for ourselves.

¹⁷Many people ate at my table. They included 150 Jews and officials. They also included leaders who came to us from the nations that were around us. ¹⁸Each day one ox, six of the best sheep and some birds were prepared for me. Every ten days plenty of wine of all kinds was brought in as well. In spite of all that, I never asked for the food that was provided for my table. That’s because the people were already paying too many taxes.

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