Nehemiah 9:37

yieldeth much increase Literally -its produce it maketh in abundance." The allusion is to the pressure of the tribute exacted for the Persian revenue. Cf. Nehemiah 5:4. See Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. III., pp. 421 423.

-Besides money payments -a payment … had to be made in kind, each province being required to furnish that commodity, or those commodities, for which it was most celebrated.… While the claims of the crown upon its subjects were definite and could not be exceeded, the satrap was at liberty to make any exactions that he pleased beyond them.… Like a Roman proconsul, he was to pay himself out of the pockets of his subjects; and, like that class of persons, he took care to pay himself highly."

dominion R.V. authority. Cf. Deuteronomy 28:33, -The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labours shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up." Isaiah 26:13, -O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us."

weare in great distress We must remember that this language of complaint at the severity of the foreign rule and exactions is not the utterance of Nehemiah the king's minister. This portion of the book is not Nehemiah's writing. The words are spoken not by Nehemiah but by Ezra, or by the Levites. The contents of chap. 5 show that the effects of the foreign taxation upon the condition of the middle and lower classes were felt very acutely.