Nehemiah 5–6

Nehemiah Helps the Poor

5Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. ²Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

³Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields,^w our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”^x

⁴Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax^y on our fields and vineyards. ⁵Although we are of the same flesh and blood^z as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.^a Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”^b

⁶When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. ⁷I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!”^c So I called together a large meeting to deal with them ⁸and said: “As far as possible, we have bought^d back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.^e

⁹So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach^f of our Gentile enemies? ¹⁰I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest!^{g 11}Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest^h you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”

¹²“We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oathⁱ to do what they had promised. ¹³I also shook^j out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!”

At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,”^k and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

¹⁴Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes,^l when I was appointed to be their governor^m in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. ¹⁵But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels^a of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for Godⁿ I did not act like that. ¹⁶Instead,^o I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we^b did not acquire any land.

¹⁷Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry^p were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.

¹⁹Remember^q me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.

Further Opposition to the Rebuilding

6When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah,^r Geshem^s the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates—²Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages^a on the plain of Ono.^t”

But they were scheming to harm me; ³so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” ⁴Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

⁵Then, the fifth time, Sanballat^u sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter ⁶in which was written:

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem^bv says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king ⁷and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”

⁸I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

⁹They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

¹⁰One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple^w, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”

¹¹But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” ¹²I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me^x because Tobiah and Sanballat^y had hired him. ¹³He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.^z

¹⁴Remember^a Tobiah and Sanballat,^b my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet^c Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets^d have been trying to intimidate me. ¹⁵So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

Opposition to the Completed Wall

¹⁶When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

¹⁷Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. ¹⁸For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. ¹⁹Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.