The Obligations of the Covenant

^28 (A)“The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, ^(B)and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, ²⁹ join with their brothers, their nobles, ^(C)and enter into a curse and an oath ^(D)to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes. ^30 (E)We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. ^31 (F)And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the ^(G)seventh year and the ^(H)exaction of every debt.

³² “We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly ^(I)a third part of a shekel^[a] for the service of the house of our God: ^33 (J)for the showbread, ^(K)the regular grain offering, ^(L)the regular burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. ^34 (M)We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have likewise cast lots ^(N)for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, ^(O)as it is written in the Law. ³⁵ We obligate ourselves ^(P)to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord; ³⁶ also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, ^(Q)as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks; ^37 (R)and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, ^(S)to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. ³⁸ And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of ^(T)the storehouse. ³⁹ For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi ^(U)shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. ^(V)We will not neglect the house of our God.”

^14 (A)Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.

¹⁵ In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses ^(B)on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, ^(C)which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And ^(D)I warned them on the day when they sold food. ¹⁶ Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! ^17 (E)Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, ^(F)profaning the Sabbath day? ^18 (G)Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster^[a] on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

¹⁹ As soon as it ^(H)began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. ^21 (I)But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. ²² Then I commanded the Levites ^(J)that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. ^(K)Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.