Albert Barnes Commentary Nehemiah 5
Albert Barnes Commentary
Nehemiah 5
Albert Barnes Commentary
Nehemiah 5
"For there were that said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many: let us get grain, that we may eat and live." — Nehemiah 5:2 (ASV)
Are many - A slight emendation brings this verse into exact parallelism with the next, and gives the sense: "We have pledged our sons and our daughters, that we might get grain, and eat and live." Compare (Nehemiah 5:5).
"There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king`s tribute [upon] our fields and our vineyards." — Nehemiah 5:4 (ASV)
The king’s tribute: The tax payable to the Persian monarch (Esther 10:1). In ancient times, heavy taxation often resulted in debt and distress.
"Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage [already]: neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards." — Nehemiah 5:5 (ASV)
The power of a father to sell his daughter into slavery is expressly mentioned in the Law (Exodus 21:7). The power to sell a son appears from this passage. In either case, the sale held good for only six years, or until the next year of jubilee (see the marginal references).
"Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I held a great assembly against them." — Nehemiah 5:7 (ASV)
You exact usury — The phrase is unique to Nehemiah, and is best explained by the context, which shows the practice of the rich Jews at the time to have been not so much to lend on usury as to lend on mortgage and pledge.
"And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, that were sold unto the nations; and would ye even sell your brethren, and should they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found never a word." — Nehemiah 5:8 (ASV)
Nehemiah contrasts his own example with that of the rich Jews. He had spent money redeeming some countrymen from servitude among pagans; they were causing others to be sold into slavery among the Jews.
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