Nehemiah 5:1-13

In the midst of a devastating famine, the poor of the Jews were mortgaging their homes to the wealthier Jews, with interest, to get money to pay the King’s taxes or for food. This left some of them without money to buy food for themselves and their families. Many of their sons and daughters became slaves to these Jews in order to survive. All of this happened after they had brought their brothers and sisters back from slavery in other nations. They were doing the very same thing that their enemies had done to the poorest of the their brethren. Did they not fear God? We are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbors especially those of our own household, as much as we love ourselves.....we are one Body in Christ.....as a Christian nation how we treat the poorest of our citizens reflects on our God.

The prolonged period of working, watching, fear, and weariness inevitably led to trouble among the people in Jerusalem. There were three groups of complainers. The first group had large families, and did not have enough food to eat. The second group had large mortgages to pay and could not buy food. The third group had large taxes to pay and had been forced to mortgage their land and even to sell their children. The people’s basic problem is pinpointed in the words against their Jewish brethren. The people were not complaining merely about poverty and high taxes; they were grumbling about each other. the people refers to the poor; the brethren refers to the rich rulers. In short, this was a class conflict. The poor people had mortgaged their lands and vineyards and houses. They had borrowed money and even had sold their sons and daughters into slavery. From the perspective of the Law, there were two problems here: (1) usury, lending money and charging interest, and (2) slavery. 

Nehemiah’s first response to the sins of the Jewish people was anger. Deliberate disobedience to the Word of God ought to make a person indignant toward the sin—but not toward the sinner. After getting angry at the sins of the Jewish people (v. 6), Nehemiah spent some time in serious thought. He then confronted the guilty people. When Israel, a nation called by the Lord, stopped honoring and obeying Him, it became a scandal because God’s name was being dishonored. Nehemiah challenged the lenders to restore what they had taken with interest. The hundredth of the money is probably a reference to the interest they had been charging.

Nehemiah 5:1-13

And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. ² For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” 

³ There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.” 

⁴ There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. ⁵ Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.” 

⁶ And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷ After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, “Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.” So I called a great assembly against them. ⁸ And I said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?” 

Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. ⁹ Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? ¹⁰ I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! ¹¹ Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.” 

¹² So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.” 

Then I called the priests, and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. ¹³ Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” 
And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise.