Nehemiah 5:15-17

Easy-to-Read Version

¹⁵ But the governors who ruled before me made life hard for the people. The governors forced everyone to pay 1 pound^[a] of silver. They also made the people give them food and wine. The leaders under these governors also ruled over the people and made life even harder. But I respected and feared God, so I didn’t do things like that. ¹⁶ I worked hard at building the wall of Jerusalem. All my men gathered there to work on the wall. We didn’t take any land from anyone.

¹⁷ Also, I regularly fed 150 Jews who were always welcome at my table, and I fed those who came to us from the nations around us.