The Temple Cleansed

4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, a relative of Tobiah, had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God 5 and had prepared for Tobiah a large room where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the temple articles, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.

6 While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to Artaxerxes king of Babylon [fn] in the thirty-second year of his reign. Some time later I obtained leave from the king 7 to return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of the house of God.

8 And I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 Then I ordered that the rooms be purified, and I had the articles of the house of God restored to them, along with the grain offerings and frankincense.