Charles Ellicott Commentary Nehemiah 5
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Nehemiah 5
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Nehemiah 5
"Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews." — Nehemiah 5:1 (ASV)
Their brethren the Jews. —Nehemiah’s other troubles had come from external enemies: he begins this account by laying emphasis on the hard treatment of Jews by Jews.
"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)
We take up. — Let us receive. This is a general appeal for the governor’s help.
"Some also there were that said, We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses: let us get grain, because of the dearth." — Nehemiah 5:3 (ASV)
Because of the dearth. —Not any particular famine, strictly speaking, but their present hunger. The past mortgages had constrained their resources.
"There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king`s tribute [upon] our fields and our vineyards." — Nehemiah 5:4 (ASV)
We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute. —Literally, we have made our fields and vineyards answerable for the payment of the Persian tribute. They had pledged the coming produce.
"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)
We bring into bondage. —But the climax of the cry was the bondage of their children, especially of the daughters, whom they had been obliged to sell until the Jubile for money: children as precious to their parents as were the children of the rulers to them.
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