Supplying wood for priests to use in offering burnt sacrifices on the altar was a task assigned to the Nethinims, or temple servants (Ezra 2:43). But not enough of these servants returned from the exile in Babylonia and Persia to handle this task.

Nehemiah solved the problem by assigning other people from among the Levites and the general population to do this work. He cast lots to set up a rotating system under which wood would be supplied for this purpose throughout the year.

NEHEMIAH 10:34 – We cast the lost among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God.