Preparations for worship in the temple

44 On that day, men were appointed {they appointed men} to be in charge of the storerooms where they kept the money that people contributed for the temple. They also kept there the other things that the people contributed— the tithes and the first part of the grain and fruit that was harvested each year. Those men collected those things from the fields/farms near the cities, and took them to Jerusalem and gave them to the priests and the other descendants of Levi, as Moses had said in his laws that they should do. All the Israeli people were happy about the work that the priests and the descendants of Levi did, 45 because they performed the rituals to purify things, and the other rituals that God had commanded. The musicians in the temple also did their work as King David and his son Solomon had declared that they should do. 46 Ever since the time that David had been the king and Asaph had been his chief musician, the musicians had led the people while they sang songs to praise and thank God. 47 During the years that Zerubbabel and I governed the Israeli people, they all contributed the food that the singers and temple gatekeepers needed each day. They gave ◄a tithe/10%► of their crops to the descendants of Levi who helped the priests, and those descendants of Levi gave ◄a tithe/10%► of that to the priests, who were descendants of Aaron the first Supreme Priest.