The Temple Cleansed

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.

10