But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.
The former governors ... had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. The income of Eastern governors is paid partly in produce, partly in money. "Bread" means all sorts of provisions. The forty shekels of silver per day would amount to a yearly salary of 1,800 British pounds sterling. More than two or three governors are evidently intended. Zerubbabel was still Tirshatha in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, and there is reason to believe that he was holding this office in the sixth of that monarch's reign. How long he survived the building of the temple is not known. But more than one governor intervened between him and Nehemiah.