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 5:15

5:15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to ⁶  forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.

Nehemiah 6:6

6:6 Written in it were the following words:

“Among the nations it is rumored ⁷  (and Geshem ⁸  has substantiated ⁹  this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors ¹⁰  you are going to become their king.

Nehemiah 8:15

8:15 and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message ¹¹  in all their cities and in Jerusalem: ¹²  “Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.”

Nehemiah 9:6

9:6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, ¹³  along with all their multitude of stars, ¹⁴  the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You impart life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Nehemiah 9:17

9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ¹⁵  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ¹⁶  You did not abandon them,

Nehemiah 9:28

9:28 “Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to ¹⁷  their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again.

Nehemiah 10:29

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ¹⁸  and enter into a curse and an oath ¹⁹  to adhere to ²⁰  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ²¹  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ²²  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Nehemiah 10:31

10:31 We will not buy ²³  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. ²⁴ 

Nehemiah 11:3

11:3 These are the provincial leaders ²⁵  who settled in Jerusalem. (While other Israelites, the priests, the Levites, the temple attendants, and the sons of the servants of Solomon settled in the cities of Judah, each on his own property in their cities,

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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 tc The Hebrew term אַחַר (’akhar) is difficult here. It normally means “after,” but that makes no sense here. Some scholars emend it to אַחַד (’akhad) and supply the word “day,” which yields the sense “daily.” Cf. TEV “40 silver coins a day for food and wine.”

⁷ tn Heb “heard.”

⁸ tn Heb “Gashmu”; in Neh 2:19 this name appears as Geshem. Since it is important for the modern reader to recognize that this is the same individual, the form of the name used here in the translation is the same as that in v. 19.

⁹ tn Heb “is saying.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “words.” So also in v. 7.

¹¹ tn Heb “a voice.”

¹² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹³ tn Heb “the heavens of the heavens.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “all their host.”

¹⁵ tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

¹⁶ tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.

¹⁷ tn Heb “in the hand of” (so KJV, ASV); NAB “to the power of.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “the nobles.”

¹⁹ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

²⁰ tn Heb “to walk in.”

²¹ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

²² tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

²³ tn Heb “take.”

²⁴ tn Heb “debt of every hand,” an idiom referring to the hand that holds legally binding contractual agreements.

²⁵ tn Heb “the heads of the province.”