Nehemiah 5

There was a loud outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

1And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.

NoteThroughout this chapter "brothers" and "fellow Jews" translate a word meaning fellow countrymen, not blood siblings. The setting is the small Persian province of Judah in the fifth century BC, where the returned exiles were living on subsistence farms while also being conscripted to rebuild Jerusalem's wall, time spent on the wall was time not spent on the harvest.

2Some were saying, "We have many sons and daughters. We have to get grain so we can eat and stay alive."

2For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.

3Others were saying, "We are putting up our fields, vineyards, and houses as security for loans so we can get grain during the famine."

3Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.

NotePutting up land as security was more serious than a modern mortgage. Under Israelite custom a family's fields were its inheritance, handed down and not meant to pass permanently out of the family; losing them meant losing the household's only means of support.

4Still others were saying, "We have borrowed money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards.

4There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.

NoteJudah was a province of the Persian Empire and owed an annual tax in silver, assessed on land. It had to be paid in coin or bullion, which farmers who lived off their own crops often did not have, hence the borrowing.

5We are the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we are forcing our sons and daughters into slavery. Some of our daughters have already been made slaves, and we can do nothing about it, because other men now hold our fields and vineyards."

5Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

NoteIsraelite law allowed a person who could not pay a debt to hand over himself or his children as bond-servants until the debt was worked off. "Redeem" is the legal term for buying such a person back out of that service; here the families cannot do it because the fields that would have raised the money are already in the creditors' hands.

6When I heard their outcry and these words, I was very angry.

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

7I thought it over carefully, and then I confronted the nobles and the officials. I told them, "Every one of you is charging interest to your own brothers!" So I called a large assembly to deal with them.

7Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.

NoteThe nobles and officials were the leading landholding families and the province's administrators, the people with silver and grain to lend. Israelite law forbade charging a fellow Israelite interest on a loan made in need, while permitting it on loans to foreigners; that is the specific charge Nehemiah brings.

8I said to them, "As far as we were able, we have bought back our Jewish relatives who had been sold to foreign nations. Now you are selling your own relatives, only to have them sold back to us!" They kept quiet, because they had no answer.

8And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer.

NoteJews taken as debt-slaves or captives and sold abroad could be bought out of slavery by their relatives or community, a recognized duty. Nehemiah's point is that the same community that has been spending its money buying people out is now, through its creditors, putting people in.

9I also said, "What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you live in the fear of our God, so that our foreign enemies have nothing to shame us with?

9Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?

Note"Fear of God" here means living in awe of him and under his eye, not being frightened of him. The "shame" concern is about reputation: the surrounding peoples watching this struggling community would have a story to tell about how its own leaders treated it.

10I myself, along with my relatives and my servants, have been lending the people money and grain. Please, let us stop charging this interest.

10I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.

NoteThe Hebrew is compressed and disputed. It may mean that Nehemiah and his household have also been lending money and grain and will now stop charging interest, or that they have lent without interest and he is urging the others to follow suit.

11Please give back to them today their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses. Give back as well the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil that you have been exacting from them."

11Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

NoteThe King James "the hundredth part" translates a Hebrew phrase read by most as the interest rate (one percent a month, or twelve percent a year, the standard charge in Persian-period loan contracts), so the demand is to refund the interest already collected. Some read it instead as a demand to hand back the loans themselves.

12They answered, "We will give it back, and we will demand nothing more from them. We will do what you say." Then I called the priests and made the nobles and officials swear an oath that they would keep this promise.

12Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.

NoteAn oath was a religious act, so summoning the priests turned a verbal agreement into a formally binding vow made before God, with witnesses.

13I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, "In the same way, may God shake out of his house and his property every man who does not keep this promise. May he be shaken out like this and left with nothing." The whole assembly said, "Amen," and praised the LORD. And the people did what they had promised.

13Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.

NoteThe loose fold of a robe gathered above the belt served as a pocket for carrying grain, coins, or small goods. Shaking it out empty was an acted-out curse: as the fold now holds nothing, so may the oath-breaker be turned out of his house and left holding nothing. "Amen" is a Hebrew word meaning roughly "truly" or "let it stand", the assembly's way of accepting the oath and its curse as binding on themselves.

14Also, from the day I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes until his thirty-second year, twelve years in all, neither I nor my relatives ate the food allowance owed to the governor.

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

NoteArtaxerxes I ruled Persia; his twentieth year was about 445 BC and his thirty-second about 433 BC. A provincial governor was entitled to a fixed levy of food, wine, and silver from the people he governed, to support his household and official table, the "food allowance" Nehemiah declined to collect.

15But the governors before me had laid a heavy load on the people, taking food and wine from them, plus forty shekels of silver. Even their servants ordered the people around. But I did not do this, because I feared God.

15But 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.

NoteA shekel was a weight of silver, roughly two-fifths of an ounce (about eleven or twelve grams); forty shekels came to something close to a pound of silver. The text does not say whether this was charged daily, monthly, or yearly, but it was a substantial sum on top of the food and wine.

16Instead, I kept at the work on this wall, and we bought no land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.

16Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work.

17Besides that, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, along with the guests who came to us from the nations around us.

17Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us.

NoteFeeding officials and visiting dignitaries at his own table was part of a governor's job; the number indicates the size of the establishment Nehemiah was funding himself. The "nations around us" are the neighboring peoples and provinces (Samaria, Ammon, Ashdod and others) whose representatives had business with the province.

18Each day one ox, six choice sheep, and poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days a large supply of wine of every kind. Even so, I did not demand the governor's food allowance, because the burden of work on these people was heavy.

18Now that which was prepared for me daily 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 required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

19Remember me with favor, my God, for everything I have done for this people.

19Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

Note"Remember me" is a set form of prayer, asking God to take account of what a person has done. Nehemiah uses it several times in the book, each time at the end of a section describing his own conduct.