Nehemiah Helps the Poor

A great outcry rose from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. Some families said they needed grain so they could eat and stay alive. Others had mortgaged their fields, vineyards, and houses because of the famine. Some had borrowed money for the king’s tax, using their land as security.

The people said they were the same flesh and blood as their fellow Jews, yet their sons and daughters were being brought into bondage as servants. Some daughters were already in that condition. They could not change it, because other people now held their fields and vineyards. When Nehemiah heard their cry, he was very angry.

After thinking it over, Nehemiah confronted the nobles and rulers. He said they were charging interest to their own brothers, and he called a great assembly against them. He reminded them that Jews had worked to redeem fellow Jews who had been sold to the nations. Now these leaders were selling their own people again. They had no answer.

Nehemiah said their actions were not good and that they should walk in the fear of God. He asked them to stop charging interest and to restore that very day the people’s fields, vineyards, olive groves, houses, and the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine, and oil. The leaders agreed to restore everything and require nothing more. Nehemiah called the priests and made them swear to keep this promise.

Then Nehemiah shook out the fold of his garment as a warning that anyone who broke this promise should be shaken out by God. The assembly said Amen, praised the Lord, and the people did what they had promised. Nehemiah also set an example. During his years as governor, he did not take the governor’s food allowance from the people.

He kept working on the wall, bought no land, and fed many at his table, because the people’s burden was already heavy. He asked God to remember the good he had done for them.