Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. 2For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many: let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”
3There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses: let us get grain, because of the famine.”
4There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute on our fields and our vineyards. 5Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children: and, behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already: neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
6I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. 7Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, everyone of his brother.” I held a great assembly against them. 8I said to them, “We after our ability have redeemed our brothers the Jews, that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?” Then held they their peace, and found not a word to say. 9Also I said, “The thing that you do is not good: ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies? 10I likewise, my brothers and my servants, do lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury. 11Restore to them, today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you exact of them.”
12Then they said, “We will restore them, and will require nothing of them. We will do just as you say.”
Then I called the priests, and took an oath from them, that they would do according to this promise. 13Also I shook out my lap, and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, who does not perform this promise; even thus may he be shaken out, and emptied.”
All the assembly said, “Amen,” and praised YAHWEH1. The people did according to this promise.
14Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor. 15But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants bore rule over the people: but I didn’t do so, because of the fear of God. 16Yes, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither did we buy any land: and all my servants were gathered there to the work. 17Moreover there were at my table, of the Jews and the rulers, one hundred fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were around us. 18Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this I didn’t demand the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy on this people. 19Remember me, my God, for all the good that I have done for this people.
- 5:13 YAHWEH, God’s personal Name revealed to Prophet Musa in the Taurat, Exodus 3:15: ‘God said moreover to Musa, “You shall tell Bani-Israel this, ‘YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Ibrahim, the God of Ishaq, and the God of Yaqub, has sent me to you.’ This is my Name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered to all generations.”’ ↩︎