Nehemiah 5:5

5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹  and our children are just like their children, ²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁵ 

Nehemiah 5:12

5:12 They replied, “We will return these things, ⁶  and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials ⁷  swear to do what had been promised. ⁸ 

Nehemiah 10:31

10:31 We will not buy ⁹  on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan. ¹⁰ 

---

¹ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

² tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

³ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

⁴ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

⁵ sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).

⁶ tn The words “these things” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “took an oath from them”; the referents (the wealthy and the officials, cf. v. 7) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “according to this word.”

⁹ tn Heb “take.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “debt of every hand,” an idiom referring to the hand that holds legally binding contractual agreements.