Nehemiah 5:1–8

Nehemiah Deals with Strife

5Now there was a great cry of distress of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. ²There were those who were saying, “Our sons and daughters, we are many. We must get grain so that we may eat and live.” ³There were also those saying, “We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine.” ⁴And there were those who were saying, “We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king. ⁵Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. We are powerless,^a and our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

⁶I was very angry when I heard their shouts and these words. ⁷I thought over this in my heart, and then I quarreled with the nobles and the prefects. I said to them, “You yourselves are taking interest from your own brother!” So I called the great assembly against them, ⁸and I said to them: “We ourselves have bought back our brothers the Jews who were sold to the nations as we were able. But now you yourselves have sold your brothers so they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.