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11 Restore now to them even this day their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, and the hundredth of the silver, and the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you? have charged to them.” 12 And they said, “We will restore it, and from them will require nothing. Thus we will do as you say.” And I called the priests, and caused them to swear to do according to this word. 13 Then I shook out my lap and said, “So may God shake out every man who does not perform this word from his house and from his property; even thus is he shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised YHWH, and the people did according to this word. 14 Also from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the King (twelve years), I and my brothers did not eat the bread of the governor. 15 And the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and they took from them bread and wine, besides silver, forty shekels. Also their servants ruled over the people, and I did not do so because of the fear of God. 16 And also I held fast in the work of this wall, and we did not buy any land. And all my servants were gathered there for the work. 17 And the Jews and prefects, a hundred and fifty men, and those coming in to us from the nations that were around us, were at my table. 18 And that which was prepared for one day was one ox, and six choice sheep, and fowl prepared for me, and once every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. And with this, the bread of the governor I did not demand, because the bondage was heavy on this people. 19 Remember me, O my God, for good, for all that I have done for this people. Nehemiah 5:11-19, Berean Literal Bible. Public domain.
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