Discovery BoxNehemiah 5:5 
Context5:5 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 10:31
Context10:31 We will not buy 6 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. 7
Nehemiah 12:44
Context12:44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms for the contributions, first fruits, and tithes, to gather into them from 8 the fields of the cities the portions prescribed by the law for the priests and the Levites, for the people of Judah 9 took delight in the priests and Levites who were ministering. 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 Heb “take.”
7 tn Heb “debt of every hand,” an idiom referring to the hand that holds legally binding contractual agreements.
8 tc The translation reads מִשְּׂדֶי (missÿde, “from the fields”) rather than the MT reading לִשְׂדֵי (lisdey, “to the fields”).
9 tn Heb “for Judah.” The words “the people of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, since “Judah” is a proper name as well as a place name.
10 tn Heb “standing.”
