Nê-hê-mi 5

The outcry of the poor against their own people

¹Now the common people and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. ²Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are many. We must get grain so that we can eat and stay alive.”^{a 3}Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses to get grain during the famine.” ⁴Still others said, “We have borrowed money against our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s tax. ⁵Our bodies are the same as those of 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 taken as slaves, and we are powerless, because our fields and vineyards now belong to others.” ⁶I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. ⁷After thinking it over, I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I told them, “You are charging your own fellow Jews interest!” Then I called a great assembly to deal with them. ⁸I said to them, “As far as we were able, we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to foreigners. And now you are selling your own fellow Jews, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept silent and could find nothing to say.

⁹I went on, “What you are doing is not right. Should you not live in the fear of our God, so that the nations who are our enemies have no reason to mock us? ¹⁰I myself, my relatives and my men are also lending them money and grain. Let us stop charging this interest! ¹¹Give back to them this very day their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and the interest you are charging them on the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”^{b 12}They answered, “We will give it back and demand nothing more from them. We will do exactly as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. ¹³I also shook out the fold of my robe and said, “In the same way may God shake out of his house and his property anyone 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 as they had promised. ¹⁴Moreover, from the day I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years in all, neither I nor my relatives ate the food allowance of the governor. ¹⁵The earlier governors before me had laid heavy burdens on the people. They took food and wine from them, as well as about 1 pound of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not act like that, because I feared God. ¹⁶I devoted myself to the work on this wall, and we did not acquire any land. All my men were gathered there for the work. ¹⁷Besides, 150 Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some birds were prepared for me, and every ten days a large supply of all kinds of wine. In spite of all this, I never demanded the governor’s food allowance, because the people already carried a heavy burden. ¹⁹Remember me, my God, for good, for all that I have done for this people.