Nehemiah · chapter 5 of 13
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Nehemiah 5 tells how the people cry out because the Jewish nobles and officials are charging them interest, taking their fields and houses and enslaving their children during a famine and under the king's tax. Nehemiah is angered, rebukes the nobles, demands that they return what they took, and offers himself as an example, since he never claimed the governor's food allowance.
While the wall advances, a problem arises from within: injustice among the Jews themselves. The chapter interrupts the building to show that God's work is measured not only in stones but in how brothers are treated. It is one of the clearest Old Testament passages on economic justice.
A great outcry arises from the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers. Some say they are many and need grain to eat and live. Others have mortgaged their fields, vineyards and houses to get grain during the famine. Others have borrowed money to pay the king's tax on their fields and vineyards. Though their children are as good as their brothers' children, they have to subject their sons and daughters to slavery, some are already enslaved, and they cannot do anything because their fields belong to others.
Nehemiah is very angry when he hears their outcry. He takes counsel with himself and rebukes the nobles and officials for charging interest to their own brothers. He calls a great assembly against them and reminds them that they themselves had redeemed Jews sold to the nations, and now they sell their own brothers. They are silent, with nothing to answer. Nehemiah tells them that what they are doing is not good and that they should walk in the fear of God, so as not to be a reproach before enemy nations. He asks them to stop charging interest and to return today the fields, vineyards, olive orchards and houses, along with the hundredth part of the money, grain, wine and oil they had charged.
The nobles answer that they will return it and demand nothing more. Nehemiah summons the priests and makes them swear to keep it, shakes out the fold of his garment and says that God will shake out of his house and from his labor anyone who does not keep it. The whole assembly says amen and praises the Lord, and the people do as promised. Then Nehemiah recounts that in the twelve years he was governor, he and his brothers never ate the governor's food allowance, unlike earlier governors, who laid heavy burdens on the people. He devoted himself to the work on the wall, bought no land, kept a hundred fifty people at his table, and asks God to remember him for good.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
A great outcry arises from the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers. The book shows that the most painful problems can arise within the community itself.
Nehemiah takes counsel with himself and then rebukes the nobles and officials for charging interest to their brothers. He is angry first, but he does not act on impulse: he thinks, then confronts firmly and clearly.
Nehemiah says what they are doing is not good, and that they should walk in the fear of God so as not to be a reproach before the nations. Just treatment among brothers is a witness to outsiders.
Earlier governors burdened the people, but Nehemiah did not do so, out of the fear of God. His leadership rests on service and not privilege, and so he has the authority to correct others.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Because of hunger, debts, and because the nobles were taking their fields and houses and enslaving their children. — Nehemiah 5:2-5
Answer: He was very angry, took counsel with himself and rebuked the nobles and officials. — Nehemiah 5:6-7
Answer: That they stop charging interest and return fields, vineyards, olive orchards, houses and the hundredth part of what they had charged. — Nehemiah 5:10-11
Answer: They said they would return it and ask nothing more, and the priests took their oath. — Nehemiah 5:12
Answer: He never ate it, neither he nor his brothers, unlike earlier governors. — Nehemiah 5:14-15
Answer: A hundred fifty, besides those who came from the surrounding nations. — Nehemiah 5:17
Nehemiah 5 asks how we treat the needy within the community of faith. In a Sunday school class you can talk about how the church can support brothers and sisters in financial trouble without taking advantage of them, and how to keep money from becoming a cause of division.
You can also examine Nehemiah's example: he did not demand what his office entitled him to. Those who lead in church or at work can ask where they could give up a privilege out of love for others. And those who suffer injustice can learn from this passage that God hears the cry of the poor and that there are leaders who rise up for them.
Nehemiah 5 ends with Nehemiah's prayer that God remember him for good. In chapter 6 the enemies return with new tactics: deceptive invitations, letters and false prophets to stop the completion of the wall.
The law of Moses forbade charging interest to poor fellow Israelites, because a loan was a help and not a business. In Nehemiah 5 the nobles were using the famine and the taxes to seize land and enslave whole families. That is why Nehemiah rebuked them so firmly.
It is a symbolic gesture: Nehemiah shakes out the fold of his cloak and says that in the same way God will shake out of his house and from his labor everyone who does not keep the promise. It is a sign that the oath carries serious consequences before God.