5The men and their wives complained loudly against their fellow Jews. ²Some of them were saying, “We have many sons and daughters in our families. To eat and stay alive, we need grain.”

³Others were saying, “We are borrowing money against our fields, vineyards, and homes to get grain because there is not much food.”

⁴And still others were saying, “We are borrowing money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵We are just like our fellow Jews, and our sons are like their sons. But we have to sell our sons and daughters as slaves. Some of our daughters have already been sold. But there is nothing we can do, because our fields and vineyards already belong to other people.”

⁶When I heard their complaints about these things, I was very angry. ⁷After I thought about it, I accused the important people and the leaders, “You are charging your own brothers too much interest.” So I called a large meeting to deal with them. ⁸I said to them, “As much as possible, we have bought freedom for our fellow Jews who had been sold to foreigners. Now you are selling your fellow Jews to us!” The leaders were quiet and had nothing to say.

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