Nehemiah 5

1There arose a great outcry from the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers.

2And there were those who said, “We have many sons and daughters. Let us get grain, so that we may eat and live.”

3And there were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain during the famine.”

4And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.”

5And now, our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children; yet here we are, forcing our sons and our daughters into slavery, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved. But it is not in our power to help, and our fields and our vineyards belong to others.

6I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.

7Then I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials, and I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I assembled a great assembly against them.

8And I said to them, “We have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations, as much as we were able. But now you yourselves are even selling your brothers, and they must be sold to us!” Then they were silent and found nothing to say.

9So 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?”

10And I also, my brothers and my young men, are lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this burden.

11Please restore to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you have been exacting from them.

12And they said, “We will restore it, and from them we will require nothing; we will do as you say.” Then I called the priests and made them swear to do according to this word.

13I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man who does not fulfill this promise, from his house and from his labor; so may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen,” and praised Yahweh. And the people did according to this promise.

14Also, from the day that he appointed me to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes—twelve years—I and my brothers did not eat the governor’s food allowance.

15But the former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants ruled over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

16And I also applied myself to the work on this wall, and we did not buy any field, and all my young men were gathered there for the work.

17The Jews and the officials, a hundred and fifty men, and those who came to us from the nations that were around us, were at my table.

18What was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep; also birds were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet even with this, I did not demand the governor’s food allowance, because the service was heavy on this people.

19Remember me, my God, for good, for all that I have done for this people.