So he said to the people of Judah, ‘Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we sought the Lord our God. We sought him and he gave us rest on every side.’ So they built and succeeded.
He waged war against the king of the Ammonites. He overpowered the Ammonites, and that year they gave him 3.5 tonnes of silver, two million two hundred thousand litres of wheat, and two million two hundred thousand of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years.