Nehemiah 5

14 I was appointed to be the governor of Judea in the twentieth year that Artaxerxes was the king of Persia. For the next twelve years, until he had been ruling for almost 32 years, neither I nor my officials accepted the money that we were allowed/entitled to receive to buy food because of my being the governor. 15 The men who were governors before I became the governor had burdened the people by requiring them to pay a lot of taxes. They had forced each person to pay to them 40 silver coins every day, in addition to giving food and wine to them. Even their servants/officials oppressed the people. But I did not do that, because I revered God.

16 I also continued to work on the wall, and I did not take land from people who were unable to pay back the money that they had borrowed from me. All those who worked for me joined me to work on the wall. 17 Also, every day I was responsible to feed 150 Jewish officials, and also official visitors who came from nearby countries. 18 Each day I told my servants to serve us the meat from one ox, six very good sheep, and chickens. And every ten days I gave them a large new supply of wine. But I knew that the people were burdened by paying lots of taxes, so I did not accept the money that I was entitled/allowed to receive to buy all this food because of my being the governor.

19 My God, do not forget me, and reward me because of all that I have done for these people.