Nehemiah 10

1Those who set their seals on it were Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,

2Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

3Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,

4Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

5Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

6Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

7Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

8Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the priests.

9The Levites: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel,

10and their brothers: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

11Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,

12Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

13Hodiah, Bani, and Beninu.

14The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,

15Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

16Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

17Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,

18Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

19Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,

20Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

21Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,

22Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

23Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,

24Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,

25Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

26Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,

27Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.

28The 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 follow the law of God, together with their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all who had knowledge and understanding—

29joined with their brothers, their nobles, and bound themselves with a curse and an oath to walk in the law of God, which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey carefully all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes.

30We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.

31When 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. In the seventh year we will let the land lie unworked and will cancel every debt.

32We also placed ourselves under obligation to give a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God:

33for the bread set out in rows, for the regular grain offering and the regular burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed festivals, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

34We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have also cast lots for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God by our ancestral houses at appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God, as it is written in the law.

35We will also bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of every fruit tree, year by year, to the house of Yahweh,

36and we will bring the firstborn of our sons and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God.

37We will bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine, and the olive oil to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work.

38A priest, a descendant of Aaron, is to be with the Levites when the Levites collect the tithes, and the Levites are to bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury.

39For the people of Israel and the Levites are to bring the contribution of grain, new wine, and olive oil to the storerooms, where the vessels of the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers are. We will not neglect the house of our God.