Nehemiah 5:1-13 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Distress among the Jews. Neither this nor the next section, Nehemiah 5:14-19 (the two belong closely together) can be in their right place. Nehemiah 5:1-13 deals with the economic straits to which the Jews had been reduced through want of food; yet the text nowhere hints that their evil plight was in any way the result of the building of the walls; besides, this building did not take long enough (see Nehemiah 6:15) to occasion such widespread suffering as the narrative seems to indicate, even supposing the entire population to have ceased their ordinary work in order to give themselves to the work of building, a thing which Nehemiah 4:12 apparently precludes. Moreover, it is evident from Nehemiah 5:14 that the building had been finished for years, and that Nehemiah was writing after he had been governor for twelve years.

Nehemiah 5:1. their brethren the Jews: i.e. the returned exiles, as distinct from those who had not gone into captivity but had remained in the land.

Nehemiah 5:3. This shows that the complainants were the country folk, and that the cause of their distress was famine. The word rendered dearth is the usual one for famine (cf. Genesis 12:10 and very often elsewhere); it was owing to famine that they had to mortgage their lands and sell their children into bondage.

Nehemiah 5:5. The text is in part corrupt, but the general sense is that some had been forced to sell their children into slavery (cf. Exodus 21:7).

Nehemiah 5:6-13. The description of how Nehemiah was able to put things right again illustrates his dominating and powerful personality.

Nehemiah 5:11. the hundredth part of: read, by a slight emendation of the text, the interest on; the text, as it stands, gives no sense, since the remission of the hundredth part could have given no appreciable relief.

Nehemiah 5:13. lap: read sleeve.

Related Commentaries of Nehemiah 5:1

Nehemiah 5:1-13

1 And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.

2 For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.

3 Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.

4 There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.

5 Yet now our flesh is 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 some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

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

7 Then I consulteda with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact#st05383 usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them.

8 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 to answer.

9 Also I said, It is 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?

10 I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.

11 Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

12 Then said they, We will restore them, 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.

13 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.b And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.