Nehemiah

There was a great outcry by the common folkathe common folk Lit. “the common folk and their wives.” against their fellow Jews.

Some said, “Our sons and daughters are numerous; we must get grain to eat in order that we may live!”

Others said, “We must pawn our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain to stave off hunger.”

Yet others said, “We have borrowed money against our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s tax.

Now we are as good asbwe are as good as Lit. “our flesh is as good as the flesh of.” our kin, and our children as good as theirs; yet here we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery—some of our daughters are already subjected—and we are powerless, while our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

It angered me very much to hear their outcry and these complaints.

After pondering the matter carefully, I censured the nobles and the prefects, saying, “Are you pressing claims on loans made to your own kin?” Then I raised a large crowd against them

and said to them, “We have done our best to buy back our fellow Jews who were sold to the nations; will you now sell your own kin so that they must be sold [back] to us?” They kept silent, for they found nothing to answer.

So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. You ought to act in a God-fearing way so as not to give our enemies, the nations, room to reproach us.

I, my kindred, and my servants also have claims of money and grain against them; let us now abandon those claims!

Give back at once their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their homes, and [abandon] the claims for the hundred pieces of silver, the grain, the wine, and the oil that you have been pressing against them!”

They replied, “We shall give them back, and not demand anything of them; we shall do just as you say.” Summoning the priests, I put them under oath to keep this promise.

I also shook out the bosom of my garment and said, “So may God shake loose from their household and property any and all who fail to keep this promise; may they be thus shaken loose and stripped.” All the assembled answered, “Amen,” and praised GOD.The people kept this promise.

Furthermore, from the day I was commissioned to be 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 brothers ever ate of the governor’s food allowance.

The former governors who preceded me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took from them for bread and wine more thancmore than Lit. “after”; meaning of Heb. uncertain. forty shekels of silver. Their servants also tyrannized over the people. But I, out of the fear of God, did not do so.

I also supported the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there at the work.

Although there were at my table, between Jews and prefects, one hundred and fifty men in all, beside those who came to us from surrounding nations;

and although what was prepared for each day came to one ox, six select sheep, and fowl, all prepared for me, and at ten-day intervals all sorts of wine in abundance—yet I did not resort to the governor’s food allowance, for the [king’s] service lay heavily on the people.

O my God, remember to my credit all that I have done for this people!