Nehemiah Chapter 5

From The Open Bible Project

5:1 Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.

• (a) Against the rich who oppressed them.

5:2 For there were that said, "We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live."

• (b) This is the complaint of the people, showing the extremity they were brought to.

5:3 Some also there were that said, "We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine."

5:4 There were also some who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.

• (c) To pay our tribute to the king of the Persians, which was exacted yearly from us.

5:5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. Neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards."

• (d) By nature the rich are no better than the poor.
• (e) We are not able to redeem them, but out of poverty are forced to sell them to others.

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

5:7 Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, "You exact usury, everyone of his brother." I held a great assembly against them.

• (f) You press them with usury, and seek to bring all thing into your hands.
• (g) Both because they should be moved with pity seeing how many were oppressed by them, and also hear the judgment of others, who should be witnesses of their dealings with their brethren.

5:8 I said to them, "We, after our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Jews that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?" Then they held their peace, and found never a word.

• (h) Seeing God has once delivered them from the bondage of the heathen, shall we make them our slaves?

5:9 Also I said, "The thing that you do is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?

• (i) Meaning, Nehemiah.
• (k) Who by this occasion will blaspheme the Name of God, seeing that our actions are no better than theirs.

5:10 I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury.

5:11 Please restore to them, even this day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you are charging them."

• (l) Which you take from them for the loan.

5:12 Then they said, "We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, even as you say." Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

5:13 Also I shook out my lap, and said, "So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that doesn't perform this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied." All the assembly said, "Amen," and praised Yahweh. The people did according to this promise.

5:14 Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that is], twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor.

• (m) I did not receive the portion and diet which the governors who were before me exacted, in which he declares that he rather sought the wealth of the people than his own convenience.

5:15 But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took bread and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people: but I didn't do so, because of the fear of God.

5:16 Yes, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered there to the work.

5:17 Moreover there were at my table, of the Jews and the rulers, one hundred fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were around us.

5:18 Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this I didn't demand the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy on this people.

• (n) While at other times they had by measure, at this time they had most liberally.

5:19 Remember to me, my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.