5Some men and their wives cried out against their Jewish brothers and sisters. ²Some of them were saying, “We and our sons and daughters have increased our numbers. Now there are many of us. We have to get some grain so we can eat and stay alive.”

³Others were saying, “We’re being forced to sell our fields, vineyards and homes. We have to do it to buy grain. There isn’t enough food for everyone.”

⁴Still others were saying, “We’ve had to borrow money. We needed it to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵We belong to the same family lines as the rest of our people. Our sons and daughters are as good as theirs. But we’ve had to sell them off as slaves. Some of our daughters have already been made slaves. But we can’t do anything about it. That’s because our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”

⁶I heard them when they cried out. And I burned with anger when I heard what they were saying. ⁷I thought it over for a while. Then I brought charges against the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are forcing your own people to pay too much interest!”

So I called together a large group of people to handle the matter. ⁸I said, “Our Jewish brothers and sisters were sold to other nations. We’ve done everything we could to buy them back and bring them home. But look at what you are doing! You are actually selling your own people! Now we’ll have to buy them back too!”

The people kept quiet. They couldn’t think of anything to say.

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