Nehemiah 5:13-15

The Voice

¹³ I shook out my robe.

Everyone who had gathered in our assembly to witness this praised the Eternal and gave their benediction saying, “So may it be.”

All the people did as they promised. ¹⁴ As long as I had been appointed governor in Judah—for the 12 years from the 20th to the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes’ reign over the Persian Empire—no one in my family took a salary from the food tax the empire levied. ¹⁵ Every governor who had come before me had exploited his authority and levied a stiff tax—a pound of silver a day—and taken food and wine to supply his own table, often using unmerciful servants to extract this payment. But my fear of the True God kept me from ever acting in the same way.