Nehemia 10

The people seal a firm agreement

¹Because of all this, we are making a binding agreement and putting it in writing. On the sealed document are the names of our officials, our Levites and our priests.^{a 2}Those who sealed it were Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,^{b 3}Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, ⁴Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah, ⁵Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, ⁶Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, ⁷Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, ⁸Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, ⁹Maaziah, Bilgai and Shemaiah. These were the priests.

¹⁰The Levites: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the descendants of Henadad, Kadmiel, ¹¹and their fellow Levites: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, ¹²Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, ¹³Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, ¹⁴Hodiah, Bani and Beninu.

¹⁵The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, ¹⁶Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, ¹⁷Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, ¹⁸Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, ¹⁹Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, ²⁰Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, ²¹Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, ²²Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, ²³Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, ²⁴Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, ²⁵Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, ²⁶Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, ²⁷Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, ²⁸Malluch, Harim and Baanah. ²⁹The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to keep the law of God, together with their wives, their sons and their daughters, all who were old enough to understand, ³⁰join their fellow Israelites, their nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to walk in the law of God that was given through Moses the servant of God, and to keep and carry out all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, his rulings and his statutes. ³¹We will not give our daughters in marriage to the peoples of the land or take their daughters as wives for our sons. ³²When the peoples of the land bring goods or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. Every seventh year we will leave the land unworked and cancel every debt. ³³We also took on ourselves the obligation to give about 1/8 ounce of silver each year for the service of the house of our God,^{c 34}for the bread set out in rows, the regular grain offering and the regular burnt offering, the offerings for the Sabbaths, the new moons and the appointed feasts, the holy offerings, the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God.

³⁵We, the priests, the Levites and the people, have cast lots for the wood offering, to decide which of our families is to bring wood to the house of our God at the set times each year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law. ³⁶We will also bring the firstfruits of our soil and the firstfruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the LORD each year. ³⁷As it is written in the law, we will bring the firstborn of our sons and of our livestock, the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who serve in the house of our God.^{d 38}We will bring to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God, the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the olive oil; and we will bring the tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we farm. ³⁹A priest descended from Aaron is to be with the Levites when they collect the tithes, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. ⁴⁰For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine and olive oil to the storerooms, where the vessels of the sanctuary are kept and where the priests who serve, the gatekeepers and the singers are. We will not neglect the house of our God.