NehemiahChapter 5

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¹About that time the people and their wives cried out loudly. They complained against their fellow Jews. ²Some were saying, "We have many sons and daughters. We must get grain so we can eat and stay alive." ³Others were saying, "We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to pay for grain. We need grain because of the famine."a ⁴Still others were saying, "We have borrowed money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵We and our children are just like our fellow Jews and their children. Yet we are having to sell our sons and daughters as slaves. Some of our daughters are slaves already. But we have no power to buy them back. Our fields and vineyards belong to other people now." ⁶I heard them crying out and complaining like this. Then I became very angry. ⁷I thought it over carefully. Then I scolded the nobles and officials. I said, "You are charging interest to your own brothers!" So I called a large meeting against them. ⁸I said, "We have done all we can to buy back our Jewish brothers. They had been sold to foreigners. But now you are selling your own brothers, so they can be sold back to us!" They said nothing. They could not think of anything to say. ⁹So I went on, "What you are doing is not right. You should live in the fear of our God. Then our foreign enemies won't have a reason to mock us. ¹⁰My brothers, my servants, and I have also been lending the people money and grain. Please, let's stop charging this interest. ¹¹Please give back to them right away their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses. Also give back the part you have been charging them. That means the money, grain, new wine, and olive oil."b ¹²They answered, "We will give it back. We won't ask them for anything more. We will do as you say." Then I called the priests. I made the nobles and officials take an oath. They swore to do what they had promised. ¹³I also shook out the folds of my robe. I said, "May God shake out every man who does not keep this promise. May he shake him out of his house and all he owns, just like this. May that man be shaken out and left with nothing!" The whole crowd said, "Amen." And they praised the LORD. And the people did what they had promised. ¹⁴King Artaxerxes made me governor of the people in the land of Judah. I served from his twentieth year until his thirty-second year. That was twelve years in all. During that time, my brothers and I did not eat the food given to the governor. ¹⁵The governors before me had put heavy loads on the people. They took bread and wine from them, plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also treated the people harshly. But I did not do this, because I feared God.c ¹⁶Instead, I gave myself to building the wall. All my servants gathered there to work. We did not buy any land. ¹⁷There were 150 Jews and officials who ate at my table. Besides them, there were guests from the nations around us. ¹⁸Each day one ox, six of the best sheep, and some birds were cooked for me. And every ten days, plenty of all kinds of wine was brought in. But I did not ask for the food given to the governor, because the load on the people was so heavy. ¹⁹Remember me with kindness, O my God, for all I have done for these people.