Nehemiah 5

The People Cry Out About Oppression

1 There was a serious outcry from the men and their wives against their fellow Jews.

2 Some were saying, “We got big families, and we need grain to eat and stay alive!”

3 Others were saying, “We had to mortgage our fields, vineyards, and houses just to get grain during this famine.”

4 Some said, “We had to borrow money to pay the king’s taxes on our fields and vineyards.”

5 “We are just like our fellow Jews, same flesh and blood. But we have had to sell our sons and daughters into slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, and we cannot do anything about it because our fields and vineyards now belong to someone else.”

Nehemiah Confronts the Oppressors

6 When I heard their complaints and what they were saying, I got real angry.

7 I thought it over, then I called out the nobles and officials. I said, “You all are charging your own people interest!” So I called a big assembly to deal with them.

8 I said, “We have done our best to buy back our fellow Jews who were sold to foreigners. Now you all sell your own people, and we must buy them back again,” They had nothing to say, they were silent and ashamed.

9 Then I said, “What y’all are doing is not right. Should y’all not walk in the fear of our God instead of giving our enemies something to laugh at?”

10 “I, my relatives, and my men have been lending money and grain too. But let us stop charging interest.”

11 “Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses. And also the interest, 1% of the money, grain, new wine, and olive oil you have been charging.”

12 They replied, “We will give it all back and not demand anything else from them. We will do just what you said.” Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials swear to do what they had promised.

13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God shake out anyone who does not keep this promise, out of their house and out of everything they got.” And the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. And the people followed through on what they said.

Nehemiah’s Personal Example of Integrity

14 From the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, I was governor of Judah. Neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance that comes with the governor’s office.

15 The earlier governors who came before me laid heavy burdens on the people. They took forty shekels of silver from them, along with food and wine. Even their assistants lorded over the people. But I did not do that, because I feared God.

16 Instead, I poured myself into the work on this wall. We did not buy any land, and all my men gathered there to work.

17 I fed 150 Jews and officials at my table, not to mention the people who came from the nations around us.

18 Every day, one ox, six choice sheep, and poultry were prepared for me. And every ten days, we had a big batch of wine. Even with all that, I never took the governor’s food allowance, because the work was already too heavy on the people.

19 “Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.”