Nehemiah 5:14-16

New Catholic Bible

¹⁴ Nehemiah’s Lack of Self-Interest. Moreover, from the twentieth year that King Artaxerxes appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah until the thirty-second year, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor by the king. ¹⁵ On the other hand, the former governors, my predecessors, had laid a heavy burden on the people and exacted from them forty shekels of silver each day for food and wine, while their servants also oppressed the people. However, because I feared God, I did not act in this way.

¹⁶ Indeed, I devoted all my efforts to the work on the wall, and I acquired no land, while all my servants were gathered there for the work.