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The past mortgages had straitened their resources.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-4.htm">Nehemiah 5:4</a></div><div class="verse">There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute, <i>and that upon</i> our lands and vineyards.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">we have made our fields and vineyards answerable</span> for the payment of the Persian tribute. They had pledged the coming produce.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-5.htm">Nehemiah 5:5</a></div><div class="verse">Yet now our flesh <i>is</i> as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and <i>some</i> of our daughters are brought unto bondage <i>already</i>: neither <i>is it</i> in our power <i>to redeem them</i>; for other men have our lands and vineyards.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">We bring into bondage.</span>—But the climax of the cry was the bondage of their children, especially of the daughters, whom they had been obliged to sell until the Jubile for money: children as precious to their parents as were the children of the rulers to them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-6.htm">Nehemiah 5:6</a></div><div class="verse">And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And I was very angry.</span>—Nehemiah, recently arrived, had not known this state of things. The common wailing and the three complaints in which it found expression are distinct.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-7.htm">Nehemiah 5:7</a></div><div class="verse">Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.</div>(7) I <span class= "bld">consulted.</span>—But he mastered himself, and studied his plan of operation. The matter was complicated, as the transgressors had violated rather the spirit than the letter of the law. Hence the rebuke, that they exacted usury each of his brother, failed in its object; and the governor called a general assembly, not “against them,” but “concerning them.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-8.htm">Nehemiah 5:8</a></div><div class="verse">And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing <i>to answer</i>.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Will ye even sell your brethren?</span>—The appeal is a strong one. Nehemiah and his friends had redeemed Jews from the heathen with money; these men had caused Jews to be sold to Jews.<p><span class= "bld">Nothing to answer.</span>—They might have replied had the letter of the law been urged; but this argument puts them to shame.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-9.htm">Nehemiah 5:9</a></div><div class="verse">Also I said, It <i>is</i> not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Because of the reproach.</span>—The text of another strong argument used in the assembly. We learn in Nehemiah 6 how watchful the heathen were: all matters were reported to them, and every act of oppression would become a reproach against the God of the Jews.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-10.htm">Nehemiah 5:10</a></div><div class="verse">I likewise, <i>and</i> my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Might exact.</span>—We <span class= "ital">have lent them money and corn.</span> By his own example the governor pleads with them: not “let us leave off this usury,” but let us all and together “remit the loans.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-11.htm">Nehemiah 5:11</a></div><div class="verse">Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth <i>part</i> of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Also the hundredth part of the money.</span>—The monthly payment of one per cent. per month, twelve per cent. in the year, they were required to give up for the future.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-12.htm">Nehemiah 5:12</a></div><div class="verse">Then said they, We will restore <i>them</i>, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">We will restore.</span>—The promise was given to restore the mortgaged property and to require no more interest. But Nehemiah required an oath to give legal validity to the procedure, and the priests’ presence gave it the highest religious sanction.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-13.htm">Nehemiah 5:13</a></div><div class="verse">Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Shook my lap.</span>—This symbolical act imprecated on every man who broke this covenant an appropriate penalty: that he be emptied of all his possessions, even as the fold of Nehemiah’s garment was emptied. And it is observable that the iniquity thus stopped is not referred to in the subsequent covenant (Nehemiah 10), nor is it one of the offences which the governor found on his second return (Nehemiah 13).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-14.htm">Nehemiah 5:14</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, <i>that is</i>, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.</div>(14-19) Nehemiah’s vindication of his own conduct.<p>(14) <span class= "bld">I was appointed.</span>—<span class= "ital">That he appointed me,</span> viz., Artaxerxes.<p><span class= "bld">Twelve years.</span>—The whole narrative, thus far, was written after his return from Jerusalem, and on a review of his governorship; hence, “their governor in the land of Judah.” Of his second appointment the same thing might have been said: but that, at the time of writing, was in the future.<p><span class= "bld">I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.</span>—At the close of the twelve years’ term, Nehemiah could say that he and his official attendants had not drawn the customary allowances from the people.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-15.htm">Nehemiah 5:15</a></div><div class="verse">But the former governors that <i>had been</i> before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Besides forty shekels of silver.</span>—Either <span class= "ital">in bread and wine over forty shekels,</span> or, <span class= "ital">received in</span> <span class= "ital">bread and wine, and beyond that, forty shekels.</span> The latter, on the whole, is to be preferred; it would amount to about four pounds from the entire people daily.<p><span class= "bld">So did not I, because of the tear of God.</span>—Nehemiah contrasts his forbearance with the conduct of former governors; we cannot suppose him to mean Zorubbabel, but some of his successors. The practice he condemns was common among the satraps of the Persian princes. Note that usury and rigour were interdicted, in <a href="/leviticus/25-36.htm" title="Take you no usury of him, or increase: but fear your God; that your brother may live with you.">Leviticus 25:36</a>; <a href="/leviticus/25-43.htm" title="You shall not rule over him with rigor; but shall fear your God.">Leviticus 25:43</a>, with the express sanction, “Fear thy God.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-16.htm">Nehemiah 5:16</a></div><div class="verse">Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants <i>were</i> gathered thither unto the work.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">I continued.</span>—<span class= "ital">I</span> <span class= "ital">repaired:</span> that is, as superintendent. His servants and himself did not take advantage of the people’s poverty to acquire their land by mortgage; they were, on the contrary, absorbed in the common work.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-17.htm">Nehemiah 5:17</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover <i>there were</i> at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that <i>are</i> about us.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">At my table.</span>—The charge on the governor’s free hospitality was heavy: “of the Jews a hundred and fifty rulers, besides those that came” occasionally from the country.<p><span class= "bld">Because the bondage.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">because the service of building</span> was heavy.<p><span class= "bld">The bondage.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">the service</span> was heavy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/nehemiah/5-19.htm">Nehemiah 5:19</a></div><div class="verse">Think upon me, my God, for good, <i>according</i> to all that I have done for this people.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Think upon me, my God.</span>—Inserting the present prayer far from this people, Nehemiah humbly asks his recompense not from them, but from God. 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