Nehemiah 5
Famine forces many Israelites into slavery
Then the people and their wives caused an uproar against their Jewish brothers. Some said, “There are a lot of us including our children, so let’s gather some grain so we can eat and stay alive.” Others said, “We are mortgaging our land, our farms, and our houses just to feed ourselves in this famine.” And still others said, “We’ve borrowed money to pay the king’s taxes on our property. Now we’re just like our brothers, and we’re forcing our children to be slaves. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but there’s nothing we can do about it because we don’t even own our fields and vineyards.”
Nehemiah orders rulers to stop charging interest
I was mad when I heard what they were saying. I thought about what I should do, and decided to press charges against the nobles and officials. I told them, “You guys are charing interest from your own brothers." And I held an assembly against them and said, “We’ve brought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to other countries as best we can. And now here you are selling them back to yourselves!” They stood in silence and didn’t say a word. So then I added, “What you’re doing isn’t good. Shouldn’t you live in fear of our God, trying not to get made fun of by the other countries? My brothers, my servants, and I are lending them money and grain. Starting now I want you to stop charging them interest and give them back their fields, vineyards, olive orchards, houses, along with the interest you’ve been charging.” Then they said, “We’ll give everything back and won’t charge them anything else. We’ll do as you say.” So I called the priests and made them swear to follow through. I dusted off my hands and said, “May God take away the houses and jobs of anyone who doesn’t follow through with this promise. May he be shaken down and his pockets emptied.” The entire assembly said “Agreed” and then praised the Existing One. And they did as they had promised.
Nehemiah never taxed Israelites
Ever since I became Judah’s governor (12 years from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes’s reign), my brothers and I never ate from the governor’s food budget. The governors before me taxed the people heavily, taking 1.5 ounces of silver every day. Even their servants lorded themselves over the common people. But I didn’t do that because I was scared of God. I also continued construction on the wall, acquiring no new land because all my workers were focused on the wall. There were 150 men at my table (Jews and officials) not counting the ones who came from neighboring countries. Every day I paid for one ox, six choice sheep, and birds, and every ten days I paid for an abundance of all kinds of wine. With all those expenses, I never even touched the governor’s food budget because the taxes would have been too hard on the people. God, please remember everything I’ve done for these people.