Nehemiah 5:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren We are of the same nature, nation, and religion with them; nor is there any other difference between us, but that they are rich and we are poor; and yet they treat us as if we were beasts or heathen, forgetting both humanity and God's law, Deuteronomy 15:7. And our children as their children As dear to us as their children are to them; and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and daughters We are compelled to sell them for our subsistence. In case of great necessity this was lawful: but those Jews were very void of compassion who forced their brethren to do what was so much against nature. And it was especially distressing that they were driven to such an extremity as to be under a necessity of selling even their daughters for slaves, being more tender and weak, and unfit for servitude, and more exposed to injuries than their sons. Neither is it in our power to redeem them None being willing to lend us money, and our lands being mortgaged to our oppressors. It was an aggravation of the sin of these oppressing Jews, that they were themselves so lately delivered out of the house of bondage, which surely obliged them in gratitude to undo the heavy burdens, Isaiah 58.