Nehemiah 5:2

For there were that said This and the two following verses describe the people's complaint. Their misfortunes were brought to a climax by the condition of hostilities, which put an end to trade and threatened town and country with ruin. The class referred to in this verse are the labourers, who depended upon wages.

We… are many The number of the poorer population in comparison with the wealthy was probably disproportionately large. The community since the return under Zerubbabel had never been prosperous. It had suffered much from the ill-treatment of the neighbouring peoples, more especially of the Samaritans. The pressure of the work on the wall, coupled with the expectation of attack, brought matters to a crisis. It was impossible to obtain regular employment, and prices had gone up. They had no property like those mentioned in Nehemiah 5:3, upon the security of which they could borrow money.

therefore we take up cornfor them &c. R.V. let us get corn &c. The words in the A.V. are ambiguous. The clause expresses the wish. It is the utterance of the poor who have grown desperate. They demand food for themselves and their families. They cannot acquiesce in starvation, when they know that wealthy capitalists their own fellow-countrymen have made money out of their necessities and could well afford in a time of common peril to render them relief. Hence the words have a ring of menace. -If we are not given corn, let us take it". It was equivalent to a threat either to use violence or to surrender the city to its enemies.

The Vulgate -accipiamus pro pretio eorum frumentum" gives a different interpretation of the words. It supposes that these poor starving people offered to sell their children as slaves in order that they might get money to buy food for themselves. This gives a sense approximating that of the conjecture to read -" orebhim" for - rabbim", -We give in pledge our sons and our daughters." In favour of this conjecture it is claimed (1) that the alteration is very slight, (2) that it brings Nehemiah 5:2 into close parallelism with Nehemiah 5:3, (3) that it obviates the awkwardness of the present text -our sons and our daughters, we are many," (4) that the present text is at variance with Scripture in making the size of families a subject of complaint. The conjecture is ingenious. But the existing text gives a good sense (see above), and is supported by the versions, which do not show any variation of reading. The position of the words -our sons and our daughters, we" &c. emphasizes the thought uppermost in the people's mind. The conjecture doubtless increases the verbal parallelism between Nehemiah 5:2. But this parallelism does not exist between Nehemiah 5:3, and the proposed alteration gives an artificial appearance to the language used. Lastly the conjecture anticipates the statement contained in Nehemiah 5:5. The fact that parents were on the point of giving their children in pledge as slaves forms the climax of the complaint. We should not therefore expect to find it mentioned in the present verse.