And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
Ver. 6. And I was very angry] Red-hot with anger, and not without cause. To be angry without cause is to be guilty of judgment, Matthew 5:22, but in case of God's dishonour, and public prejudice, moderation is mopishness, toleration cowardice, &c. Nehemiah was a magistrate, that is, a mortal god; as God is an immortal magistrate. Therefore as God is angry at the oppressions of poor people (Lactantius hath written a book De Ira Dei), so should his lieutenants; and this holy anger should be cos fortitudinis, a means to encourage, or rather to enrage them against oppressors, who grind the faces of the poor, and take from them burdens of wheat, Amos 5:11. Yea, lands and vineyards, as here, eating bread baked with the tears of men, coining their money on their skins, and wringing their spunges into their own purses.
When I heard their cry] His anger then was mixed with grief, as was our Saviour's, Mark 3:5 : it was pure zeal, which is nothing else but an extreme (but regular) heat of all the affections.