Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 151
12:47–13:13
CHRONICLES–EZRA–NEHEMIAH
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of having choir directors to lead the choirs in hymns of praise and thanks
giving to God began long ago in the days of David and Asaph. So now, in
the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel brought a daily supply
of food for the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Levites. The Levites, in
turn, gave a portion of what they received to the priests, the descendants
of Aaron.
On that same day, as the Book of Moses was being read to the people,
the passage was found that said no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be
permitted to enter the assembly of God. For they had not provided the Is
raelites with food and water in the wilderness. Instead, they hired Balaam
to curse them, though our God turned the curse into a blessing. When this
passage of the Law was read, all those of foreign descent were immediately
excluded from the assembly.
Before this had happened, Eliashib the priest, who had been appointed
as supervisor of the storerooms of the Temple of our God and who was
also a relative of Tobiah, had converted a large storage room and placed
it at Tobiah’s disposal. The room had previously been used for storing
the grain offerings, the frankincense, various articles for the Temple,
and the tithes of grain, new wine, and olive oil (which were prescribed
for the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers), as well as the offerings
for the priests.
I was not in Jerusalem at that time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes
of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign, though I later asked his
permission to return. When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about
Eliashib’s evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of
the Temple of God. I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room. Then I demanded that the rooms be purified, and
I brought back the articles for God’s Temple, the grain offerings, and the
frankincense.
I also discovered that the Levites had not been given their prescribed
portions of food, so they and the singers who were to conduct the worship
services had all returned to work their fields. I immediately confronted the
leaders and demanded, “Why has the Temple of God been neglected?”
Then I called all the Levites back again and restored them to their proper
duties. And once more all the people of Judah began bringing their tithes
of grain, new wine, and olive oil to the Temple storerooms.
I assigned supervisors for the storerooms: Shelemiah the priest, Zadok
the scribe, and Pedaiah, one of the Levites. And I appointed Hanan son
of Zaccur and grandson of Mattaniah as their assistant. These men had an
excellent reputation, and it was their job to make honest distributions to
their fellow Levites.
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