Nehemiah 5–6

CHAPTER 5

Each Usury Is Forsaken

¹Then ^athere was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their ^bJewish brothers.

²Now there were those who were saying, “We, with our sons and our daughters, are many; therefore let us ^aget grain that we may eat and live.”

³There were others who were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses, that we might get grain because of the famine.”

⁴Also there were those who were saying, “We have borrowed money ^afor the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

⁵“But now ^aour flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, ^bwe are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into subjugation, and we have no power in our hands to help, and our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

⁶Then I was very ^aangry when I had heard their outcry and these words.

⁷I consulted within my own heart and contended with the nobles and the officials and said to them, “^aYou are exacting usury, each from his brother!” Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.

⁸I said to them, “We, according to our ability, ^ahave bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; and now would you also sell your brothers that they may be sold to us?” Then they were silent and could not find a word to say.

⁹And I said, “The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of ^athe reproach of the nations, our enemies?

¹⁰“And likewise I, my brothers, and my young men are lending them money and grain. Please, let us forsake this usury.

¹¹“Please, give back to them this very day 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 are exacting from them.”

¹²Then they said, “We ^awill give it back and ^bwill require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you are saying.” So I called the priests and ^cmade them swear that they would do according to this word.

¹³I ^aalso shook out the ¹front of my garment and said, “Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not establish this word; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” And ^ball the assembly said, “Amen!” And they praised Yahweh. Then the people did according to this word.

Nehemiah as Governor

¹⁴Moreover, from the day that I was put in command to be their governor in the land of Judah, from ^athe twentieth year to the ^bthirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my ¹relatives have eaten the governor’s food allowance.

¹⁵But the former governors who were before me ¹laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty ²shekels of silver; even their young men exerted their power over the people. But I did not do so ^abecause of the fear of God.

¹⁶I also took hold of the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my young men were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷Moreover, ^athere were at my table 150 Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.

¹⁸Now ^athat which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet for all this ^bI did not require the governor’s food allowance, because the slavery was heavy on this people.

^19aRemember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.

CHAPTER 6

Enemies Try to Make Nehemiah Fearful

¹Now it happened when it was heard by Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, ^aalthough at that time I had not made the doors to stand in the gates,

²that Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at ¹Chephirim in the plain of ^aOno.” But they were planning to ²do me harm.

³So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

⁴And they sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I responded to them in the same manner.

⁵Then Sanballat sent his young man to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand.

⁶In it was written,

“It is heard among the nations, and ¹Gashmu says, that ^ayou and the Jews are planning to rebel; therefore you are rebuilding the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these words.

⁷“You have also ¹set up prophets to call out in Jerusalem concerning ²you, ‘A king is in Judah!’ So now it will be heard by the king according to these words. So now, come, let us take counsel together.”

⁸Then I sent a message to him, saying,

“Such words as you are saying have not been done, but you are ^adevising them in your own heart.”

⁹For all of them were trying to frighten us, ¹thinking, “Their hands will ²become limp in doing the work, and it will not be done.” But now, ^aO God, strengthen my hands.

¹⁰Now I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, ^awho was ¹confined at home, and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night.”

¹¹But I said, “^aShould a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple just to live? I will not go in.”

¹²Then I recognized ¹that surely God had not sent him, but he spoke his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

¹³He was hired for this reason, ^athat I might become afraid and act accordingly and sin, so that they could give me a bad name in order that they could reproach me.

^14aRemember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah ^bthe prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to make me afraid.

The Wall Is Finished

¹⁵So ^athe wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

^16aNow it happened that when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, ¹their confidence fell. And ^bthey knew that it was from our God that this work had been accomplished.

¹⁷Also in those days many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.

¹⁸For many in Judah were sworn by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as a wife.

¹⁹Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds in my presence and bringing my words to him. Then Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.