Nehemiah 5:2-5
5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.”
5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.”
5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards.
5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, and our children are just like their children, still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.”
Nehemiah 5:7
5:7 I considered these things carefully and then registered a complaint with the wealthy and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral from your own countrymen!” Because of them I called for a great public assembly.
Nehemiah 5:10-11
5:10 Even I and my relatives and my associates are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral!
5:11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”