Nehemiah 5:1-5

Nehemiah had organised the work well. He had selected guards to protect the people from their enemies. But there were other problems too. The wealthy *Jews thought that they saw an opportunity to make a good profit. But they were doing this in a way that was unfair to the poorer *Jews. In fact, the effect was often rather cruel.

So the poor people began to complain. There was a *famine in the country and some of the people were hungry. They could not afford to buy the food that they needed for their families. They could not afford to pay their taxes either. Also, because they were building the city wall, they were not able to do other work. So probably, they were not able to grow their own food. And they had no money to buy food. They had to ask the richer people to lend them money.

Some of the poor people even had to sell their property. If they still did not have enough money, they would have to sell their sons and daughters as slaves. They did not think that this was right. And they could see that the rich people were making profits from this situation. So the poor people became angry and they complained.

This was an opportunity for the rich people to become even richer. They knew that the poor people were desperate. So the rich people were forcing the poor people to pay too much money for their loans.

v6 I heard them complain about these things. Then I was very angry. v7 I thought deeply about what I should do. Then I accused the chief men and the officials. I told them, ‘These people are your own relatives. But you are making unfair profits from them.’ I arranged a big meeting to deal with them. v8 I said to them, ‘We have tried to buy back those *Jews who had to sell themselves as slaves. They were slaves to the people who were not *Jews. But now you are selling other *Jews, so that we will have to buy them back!’ They were silent, because they had no excuse. v9 I also said, ‘What you are doing is not right. You should always respect and obey God. Then our enemies in other countries will not make us ashamed.’