Nehemiah 5:8

We -We" and -ye" in this verse are in emphatic antithesis.

after our ability So Vulg. -secundum possibilitatem nostram." LXX. ἐν ἑκουσίῳ ἡμῶν. Another rendering is -according to the number of those that were among us."

have redeemed R.V. marg. -Heb. bought", i.e. as many as were put up to sale we redeemed. Nehemiah apparently refers to what had been the merciful custom of himself and his countrymen when they were in exile; but possibly also to his action in Jerusalem since his arrival. The word for -redeemed" here would be literally rendered -acquired" or -bought." The word is used here presumably because the stress of the clause rests not so much on the slavery from which the Jews were delivered, but upon the price that Nehemiah and his companions willingly paid for them.

unto the heathen Lit. -unto the nations."

and will you even sell your brethren R.V. and would ye, &c.

or shall they R.V. and should they. Nehemiah's indignant question contrasts the conduct of the wealthy money-lenders with his own practice and that of his friends. He in a foreign land redeemed every Jew he could that was being sold to the heathen, and here in Jerusalem itself he finds Jews selling their own flesh and blood, and the market in which they barter their brethren is within the walls of the Holy City. They not only sold Jews as slaves, but bought them as such. They were ready to buy them, not to redeem but to enslave them.

found nothing to answer R.V. found never a word. There was no justification either in law or equity for their conduct, in making money out of their brethren's misfortunes at a time of national danger.