In order to ensure the gathering of the produce from the areas away from Jerusalem, the Levites become tax collectors who will also benefit from what they collect. The Levites are to be accompanied by the priest, the son of Aaron when they receive the tithes. Good News Translation generalizes and makes it clear that this is not one single son of Aaron but those priests who are Aaron’s descendants. The procedure that is prescribed here for collecting the tithes may reflect the tax-collecting methods of the Persians who appointed overseers to supervise the collection of taxes.

The Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God …: A tenth of the tenth collected went directly to the priests (see Num 18.26). The presence of the priest with the Levite ensured that his portion was brought to the house of our God. Not only were these contributions to be brought to the Temple, but they were to be brought to the chambers and, even more specifically, to the storehouse. The chambers were the storage rooms where the utensils and implements of the Temple were stored according to the next verse (see Ezra 8.29). They were the storerooms of the storehouse. This can refer to a treasury where gold and silver was kept, but here it refers to a storehouse for food provisions. In the Hebrew text the prepositional phrase to the storehouse is in apposition to the prepositional phrase to the chambers. For to the chambers, to the storehouse, New International Version translates “to the storerooms of the treasury,” while New English Bible says “to the appropriate rooms in the storehouse.” Good News Translation condenses this into “to the Temple storerooms,” and this does express the meaning but loses the attention to detail shown by the author in his account.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .