^{4 Ref} Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who had been placed over the rooms of the house of our God, being a friend of Tobiah,

^{5 Ref} Had made ready for him a great room, where at one time they kept the meal offerings, the perfume, and the vessels and the tenths of the grain and wine and oil which were given by order to the Levites and the music-makers and the door-keepers, and the lifted offerings for the priests.

^{6 Ref} But all this time I was not at Jerusalem: for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king; and after some days, I got the king to let me go,

^{7 Ref} And I came to Jerusalem; and it was clear to me what evil Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in making ready for him a room in the buildings of the house of God.

^{8 Ref} And it was evil in my eyes: so I had all Tobiah's things put out of the room.

^{9 Ref} Then I gave orders, and they made the rooms clean: and I put back in them the vessels of the house of God, with the meal offerings and the perfume.

^{10 Ref} And I saw that the Levites had not been given what was needed for their support; so that the Levites and the music-makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his field.

^{11 Ref} Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said, Why has the house of God been given up? And I got them together and put them in their places.

^{12 Ref} Then all Judah came with the tenth part of the grain and wine and oil and put it into the store-houses.

^{13 Ref} And I made controllers over the store-houses, Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and with them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur the son of Mattaniah: they were taken to be true men and their business was the distribution of these things to their brothers.

^{14 Ref} Keep me in mind, O my God, in connection with this, and do not let the good which I have done for the house of my God and its worship go from your memory completely.