Bible Commentaries

Abolition of Usury - Nehemiah'sUnselfishness - Nehemiah 5

The events related in this and the following chapter also occurred duringthe building of the wall. Zealously as the rulers and richer members of thecommunity, following the example of Nehemiah, were carrying on thisgreat undertaking by all the means in their power, the work could not failto be a heavy burden to the poorer classes, who found it very difficult tomaintain their families in these expensive times, especially since they werestill oppressed by wealthy usurers. Hence great discontent arose, whichsoon vented itself in loud complaints. Those who had no propertydemanded corn for the support of their numerous families (Nehemiah 5:2); othershad been obliged to pledge their fields and vineyards, some to procure cornfor their hunger, some to be able to pay the king's tribute; and thesecomplained that they must now give their sons and daughters to bondage(Nehemiah 5:3-5). When these complaints came to the ears of Nehemiah, he wasangry with the rulers; and calling an assembly, he set before them the greatinjustice of usury, and called upon them to renounce it, to restore to theirbrethren their mortgaged lands, and to give them what they had borrowed(Nehemiah 5:6-11). His address made the impression desired. The noble andwealthy resolved to perform what was required; whereupon Nehemiahcaused them to take a solemn oath to this effect, indicating by a symbolicalact that the heavy wrath of God would fall upon all who should fail to actaccording to their promise. To this the assembly expressed their Amen,and the people carried out the resolution (Nehemiah 5:12, Nehemiah 5:13). Nehemiah thendeclared with what unselfishness he had exercised his office of governor,for the sake of lightening the heavy burden laid upon the people (Nehemiah 5:14-19).

The people complain of oppression. - Nehemiah 5:1 There arose a greatcry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews, i.e., asappears from what follows (Nehemiah 5:7), against the nobles and rulers, thereforeagainst the richer members of the community. This cry is moreparticularly stated in Nehemiah 5:2, where the malcontents are divided into threeclasses by וישׁ, Nehemiah 5:2, Nehemiah 5:3, Nehemiah 5:4.

Nehemiah 5:2

There were some who said: Our sons and our daughters are many,and we desire to receive corn, that we may eat and live. These were thewords of those workers who had no property. נקחה (fromלקח), not to take by force, but only to desire that corn may beprovided.

Nehemiah 5:3

Others, who were indeed possessed of fields, vineyards, andhouses, had been obliged to mortgage them, and could now reap nothingfrom them. ערב, to give as a pledge, to mortgage. The use of theparticiple denotes the continuance of the transaction, and is not to berendered, We must mortgage our fields to procure corn; but, We have beenobliged to mortgage them, and we desire to receive corn for our hunger,because of the dearth. For (1) the context shows that the act of mortgaginghad already taken place, and was still continuing in force (we have beenobliged to pledge them, and they are still pledged); and (2) נקחה must not be taken here in a different sense from Nehemiah 5:2, but means, We desirethat corn may be furnished us, because of the dearth; not, that we may notbe obliged to mortgage our lands, but because they are already mortgaged. בּרעב, too, does not necessarily presuppose a scarcity inconsequence of a failure of crops or other circumstances, but only declaresthat they who had been obliged to pledge their fields were suffering fromhunger.

Nehemiah 5:4

Others, again, complained: We have borrowed money for theking's tribute upon our fields and vineyards. לוה means to bedependent, nexum esse, and transitively to make dependent, like מלא, to be full, and to make full: We have made our fields and ourvineyards answerable for money for the king's tribute (Bertheau), i.e., wehave borrowed money upon our fields for … This they could only do bypledging the crops of these lands, or at least such a portion of their cropsas might equal the sum borrowed; comp. the law, Leviticus 25:14-17.

Nehemiah 5:5

“And now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and our sonsas their sons; and lo, we are obliged to bring our sons and our daughtersinto bondage, and some of our daughters are already brought into bondage;and we have no power to alter this, and our fields and vineyards belong toothers.” “Our brethren” are the richer Jews who had lent money uponpledges, and בּניהם are their sons. The sense of the first half ofthe verse is: We are of one flesh and blood with these rich men, i.e., asRamb. already correctly explains it: non sumus deterioris conditionis quam tribules nostri divites, nec tamen nostrae inopiae ex lege divinaDeuteronomy 15:7; Deuteronomy 15:8, subvenitur, nisi maximo cum foenore. The law not only allowed to lendto the poor on a pledge (Deuteronomy 15:8), but also permitted Israelites, if theywere poor, to sell themselves (Leviticus 25:39), and also their sons anddaughters, to procure money. It required, however, that they who werethus sold should not be retained as slaves, but set at liberty withoutransom, either after seven years or at the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:39-41; Exodus 22:2.). It is set forth as a special hardship in this verse that some of theirdaughters were brought into bondage for maid-servants. ידנוּ לאל אין, literally, our hand is not to God, i.e., the powerto alter it is not in our hand; on this figure of speech, comp. Genesis 31:29. The last clause gives the reason: Our fields and our vineyards belonging toothers, what they yield does not come to us, and we are not in a positionto be able to put an end to the sad necessity of selling our daughters forservants.

The abolition of usury. - Nehemiah 5:6 Nehemiah was very angry at this complaintand these things, i.e., the injustice which had been brought to hisknowledge.

Nehemiah 5:7

“And my heart took counsel upon it (ימּלך accordingto the Chaldee use of מלך, Daniel 4:24), and I contended with thenobles and rulers, and said to them, Ye exact usury every one of hisbrother.” ב נשׁא means to lend to any one, and משּׁא,also משּׁאה, Deuteronomy 24:10; Proverbs 22:26, and mashe', is the thinglent, the loan, what one borrows from or lends to another. Consequentlyמשּׁא נשׁא is to lend some one a loan; comp. Deuteronomy 24:10. This does not seem to suit this verse. For Nehemiah cannotreproach the nobles for lending loans, when he and his servants had,according to Nehemiah 5:10, done so likewise. Hence the injustice of the transactionwhich he rebukes must be expressed in the emphatic precedence given toמשּׁא. Bertheau accordingly regards משּׁא not as theaccusative of the object, but as an independent secondary accusative in thesense of: for the sake of demanding a pledge, ye lend. But this rendering can be neither grammatically nor lexically justified. Inthe first respect it is opposed by משּׁאה השּׁא, Deuteronomy 24:10, whichshows that משּׁא in conjunction with נשׁא is theaccusative of the object; in the other, by the constant use of משּׁא in all passages in which it occurs to express a loan, not a demandfor a pledge. From Exodus 22:24, where it is said, “If thou lend money (תּלוה) to the poor, thou shalt not be to him כּנשׁה, shalt not layupon him usury,” it is evident that נשׁה is one who lends moneyon usury, or carries on the business of a money-lender. This evilsecondary meaning of the word is here strongly marked by the emphaticpraeposition of משּׁא; hence Nehemiah is speaking of those whopractise usury. “And I appointed a great assembly on their account,” toput a stop to the usury and injustice by a public discussion of the matter. עליהם, not against them (the usurers), but on their account.

Nehemiah 5:8

In this assembly he reproached them with the injustice of theirbehaviour. “We” (said he) “have, after our ability, redeemed our brethrenthe Jews which were sold unto the heathen; yet ye would sell yourbrethren, and they are to be sold to us.” We (i.e., Nehemiah and the Jewsliving in exile, who were like-minded with him) have bought, in contrast toye sell. They had redeemed their Jewish brethren who were sold to theheathen. בנוּ כּדי for בנוּ אשׁר כּדי, i.e., not according to the full number of those who wereamong us, meaning as often as a sale of this kind occurred (Bertheau); forדּי does not mean completeness, multitude, but only sufficiency,supply, adequacy of means (Leviticus 25:26); hence בנוּ כּדי is: according to the means that we had: secundum sufficientiam vel facultatem, quae in nobis est (Ramb.), or secundum possibilitatem nostram(Vulg.). The contrast is still more strongly expressed by the placing of גּם before אתּם, so that וגם acquires the meaning ofnevertheless (Ewald, §354, a). The sale of their brethren for bond-servantswas forbidden by the law, Leviticus 25:42. The usurers had nothing to answerto this reproach. “They held their peace, and found no word,” sc. injustification of their proceedings.

Nehemiah 5:9

Nehemiah, moreover, continued (ויאמר, the Chethiv, isevidently a clerical error for ואמר, for the Niphal ויּאמר does not suit): “The thing ye do is not good: ought ye not (= ye surelyought) to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of theheathen our enemies?” i.e., we ought not, by harsh and unloving conducttowards our brethren, to give our enemies occasion to calumniate us.

Nehemiah 5:10-12

“I, likewise my brethren and my servants (comp. Nehemiah 4:17),have lent them money and corn; let us, I pray, remit (not ask back) thisloan!” The participle נשׁים says: we are those who have lent. Herewith he connects the invitation, Nehemiah 5:11: “Restore unto them, I prayyou, even this day (כּהיּום, about this day, i.e., even to-day, 1 Samuel 9:13), their fields, their vineyards, their olive gardens, and theirhouses, and the hundredth of the money, and of the corn, wine, and oilwhich you have lent them.” Nehemiah requires, 1st, that those who heldthe lands of their poorer brethren in pledge should restore them theirproperty without delay: 2nd, that they should remit to their debtors allinterest owing on money, corn, etc. that had been lent; not, as the wordshave been frequently understood, that they should give back to theirdebtors such interest as they had already received. That the words in Nehemiah 5:11 bear the former, and not the latter signification, isobvious from the reply, Nehemiah 5:12, of those addressed: “We will restore, sc. their lands, etc., and will not querie of them, sc. the hundredth; so will wedo as thou sayest.” Hence we must not translate בּהם נשׁים אתּם אשׁר, “which you had taken fromthem as interest” (de Wette), - a translation which, moreover, cannot bejustified by the usage of the language, for ב נשׁה does not meanto take interest from another, to lend to another on interest. The אשׁר relates not to וּמאת, but to והיּצהר … הדּגן; and השׁיב, to restore, to make good,is used of both the transactions in question, meaning in the first clause therestoration of the lands retained as pledges, and in the second, theremission (the non-requirement) of the hundredth. The hundredth taken as interest is probably, like the centesima of theRomans, to be understood of a monthly payment. One per cent. permonth was a very heavy interest, and one which, in the case of the poor,might be exorbitant. The law, moreover, forbade the taking of any usuryfrom their brethren, their poor fellow-countrymen, Exodus 22:25 and Leviticus 25:36. When the creditors had given the consent required, Nehemiahcalled the priests, and made them (the creditors) swear to do according tothis promise, i.e., conscientiously to adhere to their agreement. Nehemiahobtained the attendance of the priests, partly for the purpose of givingsolemnity to the oath now taken, and partly to give to the declarationmade in the presence of the priests legal validity for judicial decisions.

Nehemiah 5:13

To make the agreement thus sworn to still more binding,Nehemiah confirmed the proceeding by a symbolical action: Also I shookmy lap, and said, So may God shake out every man from his house, andfrom his labour, that performeth (fulfilleth) not this promise, and thusmay he be shaken out and emptied. חצן means the lap of the garment,in which things are carried (Isaiah 49:22), where alone the word is againfound. The symbolical action consisted in Nehemiah's gathering up hisgarment as if for the purpose of carrying something, and then shaking itout with the words above stated, which declared the meaning of the act. The whole congregation said Amen, and praised the Lord, sc. for thesuccess with which God had blessed his efforts to help the poor. And thepeople did according to this promise, i.e., the community acted inaccordance with the agreement entered into.

Nehemiah's unselfish conduct. - The transaction above related gaveNehemiah occasion to speak in his narrative of the unselfishness withwhich he had filled the office of governor, and of the personal sacrifices hehad made for the good of his fellow-countrymen.

Nehemiah 5:14

The statement following is compared with the special occurrencepreceding it by גּם. As in this occurrence he had used his credit todo away with the oppression of the people by wealthy usurers, so alsohad he shown himself unselfish during his whole official career, andshunned no sacrifice by which he might lighten the burdens that lay uponhis fellow-countrymen. “From the time that he appointed me to be theirgovernor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two-and-thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, I and my servants have not eatenthe bread of the governor.” The subject of צוּה is leftundefined, but is obviously King Artaxerxes. פּחם, their (theJews') governor. This he was from the twentieth (comp. Nehemiah 2:1) to thethirty-second year of Artaxerxes, in which, according to Nehemiah 13:6, he againvisited the court of this monarch, returning after a short interval toJerusalem, to carry out still further the work he had there undertaken. “The bread of the Pechah” is, according to Nehemiah 5:15, the food and wine withwhich the community had to furnish him. The meaning is: During thiswhole period I drew no allowances from the people.

Nehemiah 5:15

The former governors who had been before me in Jerusalem - Zerubbabel and his successors-had received allowances, העם על הכבּידוּ, had burdened the people, and had taken of them(their fellow-countrymen) for bread and wine (i.e., for the requirements oftheir table), “afterwards in money forty shekels.” Some difficulty ispresented by the word אחר, which the lxx render by ἔσχατον , the Vulgate quotidie. The meaning ultra, praeter, besides (EW. §217,1), can no more be shown to be that of אחר, than over can, whichBertheau attempts to justify by saying that after forty shekels followforty-one, forty-two, etc. The interpretation, too: reckoned after money(Böttcher, de Inferis, §409, b, and N. krit. Aehrenl. iii. p. 219), cannot besupported by the passages quoted in its behalf, since in none of them isאחר used de illo quod normae est, but has everywherefundamentally the local signification after. Why, then, should not אחר be here used adverbially, afterwards, and express the thought thatthis money was afterwards demanded from the community for theexpenses of the governor's table? “Even their servants bare rule over thepeople.” שׁלט denotes arbitrary, oppressive rule, abuse ofpower for extortions, etc. Nehemiah, on the contrary, had not thus actedbecause of the fear of God.

Nehemiah 5:16

“And also I took part in the work of this wall; neither bought weany land, and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work.” בּ החזיק = בּ יד החזיק, to set the hand tosomething; here, to set about the work. The manner in which Nehemiah,together with his servants, set themselves to the work of wall-building isseen from Nehemiah 4:10, Nehemiah 4:12, Nehemiah 4:15, and Nehemiah 4:17. Neither have we (I and my servants)bought any land, i.e., have not by the loan of money and corn acquiredmortgages of land; comp. Nehemiah 5:10.

Nehemiah 5:17

But this was not all; for Nehemiah had also fed a considerablenumber of persons at his table, at his own expense. “And the Jews, bothone hundred and fifty rulers, and the men who came to us from the nationsround about us, were at my table,” i.e., were my guests. The hundred andfifty rulers, comp. Nehemiah 2:16, were the heads of the different houses ofJudah collectively. These were always guests at Nehemiah's table, as werealso such Jews as dwelt among the surrounding nations, when they cameto Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 5:18

“And that which was prepared for one (i.e., a single) day wasone ox, six choice (therefore fat) sheep, and fowls; they were prepared forme, i.e., at my expense, and once in ten days a quantity of wine of allkinds.” The meaning of the last clause seems to be, that the wine wasfurnished every ten days; no certain quantity, however, is mentioned, butit is only designated in general terms as very great, להרבּה. זה ועם, and with this, i.e., notwithstanding this, greatexpenditure, I did not require the bread of the Pechah (the allowance forthe governor, comp. Nehemiah 5:14), for the service was heavy upon the people. העבדה is the service of building the walls of Jerusalem. ThusNehemiah, from compassion for his heavily burdened countrymen,resigned the allowance to which as governor he was entitled.

Nehemiah 5:19

“Think upon me, my God, for good, all that I have done for thispeople.” Compare the repetition of this desire, Nehemiah 13:14 and Nehemiah 13:31. על עשׂה in the sense of ל עשׂה, for the sake of thispeople, i.e., for them.