# Nehemiah 05 📖: Nehemiah Defends the Poor [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Nehemiah Overview]] | [[Nehemiah 04]] | [[Nehemiah 06]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ## Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed [[#Verse 01.]] Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.  [[#Verse 02.]] There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.” [[#Verse 03.]] There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.”  [[#Verse 04.]] Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards.  [[#Verse 05.]] And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen and our children are just like their children, still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” [[#Verse 06.]] I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. [[#Verse 07.]] I considered these things carefully and then registered a complaint with the wealthy and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral from your own countrymen!” Because of them I called for a great public assembly.  [[#Verse 08.]] I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say. [[#Verse 09.]] Then I said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! Should you not conduct yourselves in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?  [[#Verse 10.]] Even I and my relatives and my associates are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! [[#Verse 11.]] This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.” [[#Verse 12.]] They replied, “We will return these things, and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials swear to do what had been promised.  [[#Verse 13.]] I also shook out my garment, and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!” and they praised the Lord. Then the people did as they had promised. [[#Verse 14.]] From the day that I was appointed governor in the land of Judah, that is, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes—twelve years in all—neither I nor my relatives ate the food allotted to the governor.  [[#Verse 15.]] But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.  [[#Verse 16.]] I gave myself to the work on this wall, without even purchasing a field. All my associates were gathered there for the work. [[#Verse 17.]] There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, in addition to those who came to us from the nations all around us.  [[#Verse 18.]] Every day one ox, six select sheep, and some birds were prepared for me, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Despite all this I did not require the food allotted to the governor, for the work was demanding on this people. [[#Verse 19.]] Please remember me for good, O my God, for all that I have done for this people. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The crisis came from famine, debt, and the king's taxes (5:3-4), not only from enemies outside the walls. 2. The Law forbade charging interest to fellow Israelites who were poor (Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:35-37). 3. Nehemiah asked the lenders to return the one percent interest (5:11), possibly charged monthly, which would equal twelve percent a year. 4. Nehemiah shook out the fold of his garment (5:13) as a sign that God would shake out anyone who broke the promise. 5. Nehemiah served as governor for twelve years, from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes (5:14), about 445 to 433 BC. 6. Nehemiah fed 150 Jews and officials at his table, plus visitors from the surrounding nations (5:17). 7. His daily provisions included one ox, six choice sheep, and poultry (5:18). 8. The Law said a fellow Israelite who became poor should be treated as a hired worker, not a slave, and released in the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:39-41). 9. Earlier governors had taken forty shekels of silver from the people along with food and wine (5:15). 10. Nehemiah asks God to remember him for good (5:19), a short prayer he repeats several times in the book (13:14, 22, 31). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the Redeemer who frees those in bondage. Nehemiah worked to buy back his enslaved countrymen (5:8), and Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Like Nehemiah, He never used His position for His own gain. ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Some families were mortgaging their fields and selling their children into slavery to pay debts (5:3-5). Where do you see people burdened like this today? 2. Nehemiah urged the nobles to walk in the fear of God because the nations were watching (5:9). How does the way believers treat each other affect our witness? 3. Nehemiah did not demand the governor's food allowance because the people's burden was heavy (5:14-18). How can you use your position to serve rather than take? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 9: Nehemiah urges the nobles to walk in the fear of God because of the taunts of the nations. - 📖 verses 12-13: The leaders promise to return what they took, and the assembly says "Amen" and praises the Lord. - 📖 verse 15: Nehemiah refuses to burden the people out of reverence for God. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Leviticus 25#Verse 35.|Leviticus 25:35-43]] - Care for a poor fellow Israelite without exploiting him. - 🔗 [[Exodus 22#Verse 25.|Exodus 22:25]] - Do not charge interest to the poor among God's people. - 🔗 [[Mark 10#Verse 42.|Mark 10:42-45]] - The Son of Man came to serve and give His life as a ransom. - 🔗 [[1 Peter 05#Verse 02.|1 Peter 5:2-3]] - Shepherd God's flock, not for shameful gain. - 🔗 [[Acts 04#Verse 32.|Acts 4:32-35]] - The early church shared so that no one was in need. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Nehemiah 05 - SOAP|An Audience of One]] ## 📂 Internal Notes