Nehemiah 13:10
And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field. And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field.
The portions of the Levites had not been given because the great chamber in the temple that had previously served as a storeroom for tithes and offerings had been emptied of its sacred stores and turned into a dwelling for Tobiah. That chamber had been cleared out to make room for household use, so the appointed place for receiving and keeping the provision for the ministry no longer held what belonged there.
Tobiah was settled there through an unhallowed alliance and friendship with Eliashib the high priest, cemented by intermarriage, even though Tobiah was an Ammonite and a bitter enemy of Israel. To bring him into that close connection and lodge him within the temple was in defiance of the declaration given through Moses that the Ammonites and Moabites should be forever shut out from the congregation. The act showed contempt for God and contaminated the very precincts of the temple by placing an excluded adversary where holy things should have been kept.
The misapplication of the temple offerings discouraged the liberalities of the people, so they lost their zeal and fervor and became reluctant to pay their tithes. With giving checked in this way, the treasuries of the house were left poorly supplied. Without sufficient support, the Levites and the singers who did the work, together with others employed in the temple service, left the work of God and fled every one to his field to labor elsewhere for a living.
The abuse was corrected by gathering together those who had left the service of the house and setting them back in their place. That decisive restoration inspired the people with confidence, so that all Judah again brought the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil into the treasuries. Men counted faithful were then made treasurers over the treasuries to distribute due support to their brethren in the service.