Nehemiah 5–6

Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

5And there was a great ^aoutcry of the people and their wives against their ^bJewish brethren. ²For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

³There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

⁴There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. ⁵Yet now ^cour flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we ^dare forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”

⁶And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, ^e“Each of you is ¹exacting usury from his brother.” So I ²called a great assembly against them. ⁸And I said to them, “According to our ability we have ^fredeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?”

Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. ⁹Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk ^gin the fear of our God ^hbecause of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? ¹⁰I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this ³usury! ¹¹Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”

¹²So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.”

Then I called the priests, ⁱand required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. ¹³Then ^jI shook out ⁴the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.”

And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord. ^kThen the people did according to this promise.

The Generosity of Nehemiah

¹⁴Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year ^luntil the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ^mate the governor’s provisions. ¹⁵But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but ⁿI did not do so, because of the ^ofear of God. ¹⁶Indeed, I also continued the ^pwork on this wall, and ⁵we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.

¹⁷And ^qat my table were one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. ¹⁸Now that ^rwhich was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this ^sI did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people.

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

Conspiracy Against Nehemiah

6Now it happened ^awhen Sanballat, Tobiah, ¹Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it ^b(though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), ²that Sanballat and ²Geshem ^csent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together ³among the villages in the plain of ^dOno.” But they ^ethought to do me harm.

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

⁴But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner.

⁵Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. ⁶In it was written:

It is reported among the nations, and ⁴Geshem says, that you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, ^fthat you may be their king. ⁷And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “There is a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together.

⁸Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.”

⁹For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.”

Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

¹⁰Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer; and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the ⁵temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.”

¹¹And I said, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” ¹²Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that ^ghe pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

^14hMy God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the ⁱprophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.

The Wall Completed

¹⁵So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶And it happened, ^jwhen all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for ^kthey perceived that this work was done by our God.

¹⁷Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. ¹⁸For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the ^lson-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of ^mMeshullam the son of Berechiah. ¹⁹Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my ⁶words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.