Nehemiah 5:7-8

5:7 I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ⁶  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ⁷  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

Nehemiah 13:21-22

13:21 But I warned them and said, ⁸  “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” ⁹  From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ¹⁰  13:22 Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.

¹ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

² tn Heb “nobles.”

³ tn Heb “taking a creditor’s debt.” The Hebrew noun מַשָּׁא (masha’) means “interest; debt” and probably refers to the collateral (pledge) collected by a creditor (HALOT 641-42 s.v.). This particular noun form appears only in Nehemiah (5:7, 10; 10:32); however, it is related to מַשָּׁאָה (masha’ah, “contractual loan; debt; collateral”) which appears elsewhere (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; cf. Neh 5:11). See the note on the word “people” at the end of v. 5. The BHS editors suggest emending the MT to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”), following several medieval Hebrew MSS; however, the result is not entirely clear: “you are bearing a burden, a man with his brothers.”

⁴ tn Heb “his brothers.”

⁵ tn Heb “I gave.”

⁶ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

⁷ tn Heb “your brothers.”

¹¹ tn The Hebrew text includes the words “to them,” but they have been excluded from the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹² tn Heb “I will send a hand on you.”

¹³ sn This statement contains a great deal of restrained humor. The author clearly takes pleasure in the effectiveness of the measures that he had enacted.