CHAPTER 5
About this time there was
a great
outcry
from the people
and their wives
against
their fellow
Jews.
Some
were saying,
“We
and our sons
and daughters
are numerous.
We must get
grain
to eat
and live.”
Others
were saying,
“We
are mortgaging
our fields,
our vineyards,
and our homes
to get
grain
during the famine.”
Still others
were saying,
“We have borrowed
money to pay
the king's
tax
on our fields
and vineyards.
We and our children
are just like our countrymen
and their children,
yet we
are subjecting
our sons
and daughters
to slavery.
Some of
our daughters
are already enslaved,
but we are powerless to redeem them
because our fields
and vineyards
belong to others.”
and after serious
thought
I rebuked
the nobles
and officials,
saying,
“You
are exacting
usury
from your own brothers!”
So I called
a large
assembly
against them
and said,
“We
have done our best
to buy back
our Jewish
brothers
who were sold
to foreigners,
but now you
are selling
your own brothers,
that they may be sold back
to us!”
But they remained silent,
for they could find
nothing
to say.
So I continued,
“What
you
are doing
is not
right.
Shouldn’t
you walk
in the fear
of our God
to avoid the reproach
of our foreign
enemies?
I,
as well as
my brothers
and my servants,
have been lending
the people
money
and grain.
Please,
let us stop
this
usury.
Please
restore
to them
immediately
their fields,
vineyards,
olive groves,
and houses,
along with the percentage
of the money,
grain,
new wine,
and olive oil
that
you
have been assessing
them.”
“We will restore it,”
they replied,
“and will require
nothing
more from them.
We will do
as
you
say.”
So I summoned
the priests
and required [of the nobles and official
would do
what they had promised.
I also
shook out
the folds of my robe
and said,
“May God
likewise
shake
out of his House
and possession
every
man
who
does not
keep
this
promise.
May such a man be
shaken out
and have nothing!”
The whole
assembly
said,
“Amen,”
and they praised
the LORD.
And the people
did
as they had promised.
Furthermore,
from the day
King
Artaxerxes
appointed
me to be
their governor
in the land
of Judah,
from his twentieth
year
until
his thirty-second
year
(12
years total),
neither I
nor my brothers
ate
the food
allotted to the governor.
The governors
before me
had heavily burdened
the people,
taking
from them
bread
and wine
plus
forty
shekels
of silver.
Their servants
also
oppressed
the people,
but I
did not
do
this
because
of my fear
of God.
Instead,
I devoted myself
to the construction
of the
wall,
and all
my servants
were gathered
there
for
the work;
we did not
acquire
any land.
Each
day,
one
ox,
six
choice
sheep,
and some fowl
were prepared for me,
and once every
ten
days
an abundance
of all kinds
of wine was provided.
But I did not
demand
the food
allotted to the governor,
because
the burden
on
the
people
was so heavy.