Nehemiah 5

1Now there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

2Some were saying, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain so that we can eat and stay alive.”

3Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain during the famine.”

4Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money against our fields and our vineyards to pay the king’s tax.

5Now our flesh is the same as the flesh of our brothers, and our children are the same as their children. Yet here we are forcing our sons and our daughters to become slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved. We are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

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

7I thought it over, and then I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are charging interest, each of you, to your own brothers!” Then I called a great assembly against them.

8I said to them, “As far as we were able, we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the nations. Now you are selling your own brothers, so that they will be sold back to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.

9So I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to avoid the taunts of the nations, our enemies?

10I too, and my brothers and my servants, are lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop charging this interest.

11Please give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, and the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil that you have been charging them.”

12They said, “We will give it back, and we will require nothing from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made them take an oath to do as they had promised.

13I also shook out the fold of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of his house and out of the fruit of his labor every man who does not keep this promise. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” The whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised Yahweh. And the people did as they had promised.

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

15The former governors who were before me placed heavy burdens on the people and took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do this, because of the fear of God.

16I also devoted myself to the work on this wall, and we did not acquire any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.

17Besides that, 150 men, Jews and officials, ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the nations around us.

18Each day one ox and six choice sheep were prepared for me, and birds as well, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet for all this I did not demand the governor’s food allowance, because the burden of labor on this people was heavy.

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