Nehemiah 5

Ne 5:1-5.

THE

PEOPLE

COMPLAIN OF

THEIR

DEBT,

MORTGAGE, AND

BONDAGE.

1-5. there was a great cry of the people . . . against their

brethren--Such a crisis in the condition of the Jews in

Jerusalem--fatigued with hard labor and harassed by the machinations of

restless enemies, the majority of them poor, and the bright visions

which hope had painted of pure happiness on their return to the land of

their fathers being unrealized--must have been very trying to their

faith and patience. But, in addition to these vexatious oppressions,

many began to sink under a new and more grievous evil. The poor made

loud complaints against the rich for taking advantage of their

necessities, and grinding them by usurious exactions. Many of them had,

in consequence of these oppressions, been driven to such extremities

that they had to mortgage their lands and houses to enable them to pay

the taxes to the Persian government, and ultimately even to sell their

children for slaves to procure the means of subsistence. The condition

of the poorer inhabitants was indeed deplorable; for, besides the

deficient harvests caused by the great rains

(Ezr 10:9;

also

Hag 1:6-11),

a dearth was now threatened by the enemy keeping such a multitude pent

up in the city, and preventing the country people bringing in

provisions.

Ne 5:6-19.

THE

USURERS

REBUKED.

6-12. I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words--When

such disorders came to the knowledge of the governor, his honest

indignation was roused against the perpetrators of the evil. Having

summoned a public assembly, he denounced their conduct in terms of just

severity. He contrasted it with his own in redeeming with his money

some of the Jewish exiles who, through debt or otherwise, had lost

their personal liberty in Babylon. He urged the rich creditors not only

to abandon their illegal and oppressive system of usury, but to restore

the fields and vineyards of the poor, so that a remedy might be put to

an evil the introduction of which had led to much actual disorder, and

the continuance of which would inevitably prove ruinous to the newly

restored colony, by violating the fundamental principles of the Hebrew

constitution. The remonstrance was effectual. The conscience of the

usurious oppressors could not resist the touching and powerful appeal.

With mingled emotions of shame, contrition, and fear, they with one

voice expressed their readiness to comply with the governor's

recommendation. The proceedings were closed by the parties binding

themselves by a solemn oath, administered by the priests, that they

would redeem their pledge, as well as by the governor invoking, by the

solemn and significant gesture of shaking a corner of his garment, a

malediction on those who should violate it. The historian has taken

care to record that the people did according to this promise.

14. Moreover from the time that I was appointed . . . I and my brethren

have not eaten the bread of the governor--We have a remarkable proof

both of the opulence and the disinterestedness of Nehemiah. As he

declined, on conscientious grounds, to accept the lawful emoluments

attached to his government, and yet maintained a style of princely

hospitality for twelve years out of his own resources, it is evident

that his office of cup-bearer at the court of Shushan must have been

very lucrative.

15. the former governors . . . had taken . . . bread and wine, besides

forty shekels of silver--The income of Eastern governors is paid

partly in produce, partly in money. "Bread" means all sorts of

provision. The forty shekels of silver per day would amount to a yearly

salary of £1800 sterling.

17. Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the

Jews--In the East it has been always customary to calculate the

expense of a king's or grandee's establishment, not by the amount of

money disbursed, but by the quantity of provisions consumed (see

1Ki 4:22; 18:19;

Ec 5:11).