Nehemiah 5:1-13

Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed

5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. ¹  5:2 There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain ²  grain in order to eat and stay alive.” 5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.” 5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king ³  on our fields and our vineyards. 5:5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ⁴  and our children are just like their children, ⁵  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ⁶  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁷  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁸ 

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. ⁹  5:7 I considered these things carefully ¹⁰  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ¹¹  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ¹²  from your own countrymen!” ¹³  Because of them I called for ¹⁴  a great public assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ¹⁵  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ¹⁶  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

5:9 Then I ¹⁷  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ¹⁸  Should you not conduct yourselves ¹⁹  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies? 5:10 Even I and my relatives ²⁰  and my associates ²¹  are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! ²²  5:11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest ²³  that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”

5:12 They replied, “We will return these things, ²⁴  and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials ²⁵  swear to do what had been promised. ²⁶  5:13 I also shook out my garment, ²⁷  and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out ²⁸  this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!” and they praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had promised. ²⁹ 

Nehemiah 5:1

Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed

5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. ³⁰ 

Colossians 1:7-8

1:7 You learned the gospel ³¹  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ³²  – a ³³  faithful minister of Christ on our ³⁴  behalf – 1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

[5:1]  ¹ tn Heb “their brothers the Jews.”

[5:2]  ² tn Heb “take” (so also in v. 3).

[5:4]  ³ tn Heb “for the tax of the king.”

[5:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to the flesh of our brothers is our flesh.”

[5:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “like their children, our children.”

[5:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “to become slaves” (also later in this verse).

[5:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “there is not power for our hand.” The Hebrew expression used here is rather difficult.

[5:5]  ⁸ sn The poor among the returned exiles were being exploited by their rich countrymen. Moneylenders were loaning large amounts of money, and not only collecting interest on loans which was illegal (Lev 25:36-37; Deut 23:19-20), but also seizing pledges as collateral (Neh 5:3) which was allowed (Deut 24:10). When the debtors missed a payment, the moneylenders would seize their collateral: their fields, vineyards and homes. With no other means of income, the debtors were forced to sell their children into slavery, a common practice at this time (Neh 5:5). Nehemiah himself was one of the moneylenders (Neh 5:10), but he insisted that seizure of collateral from fellow Jewish countrymen was ethically wrong (Neh 5:9).

[5:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “words.”

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

[5:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “nobles.”

[5:7]  ¹² 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.”

[5:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[5:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I gave.”

[5:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

[5:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your brothers.”

[5:9]  ¹⁷ tc The translation reads with the Qere and the ancient versions וָאוֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the MT Kethib, וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).

[5:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “not good.” The statement “The thing…is not good” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression which emphasizes the intended point (“The thing…is wrong!”) by negating its opposite.

[5:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”

[5:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “brothers.”

[5:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “lads.”

[5:10]  ²² tn Heb “this debt.” This expression is a metonymy of association: “debt” refers to the seizure of the collateral of the debt.

[5:11]  ²³ tc The MT reads וּמְאַת (umÿ’at, “and the hundredth”) which is somewhat enigmatic. The BHS editors suggest emending to וּמַשַּׁאת (umasha’t, “and the debt”) which refers to the interest or collateral (pledge) seized by a creditor (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; see HALOT 641-42 s.v. מַשָּׁא). The term מַשַּׁאת (masha’t) is related to the noun מָשָּׁא (masha’, “debt”) in 5:7, 10.

[5:12]  ²⁴ tn The words “these things” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “took an oath from them”; the referents (the wealthy and the officials, cf. v. 7) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “according to this word.”

[5:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “my bosom.”

[5:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “cause to stand.”

[5:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “according to this word.”

[5:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “their brothers the Jews.”

[1:7]  ³¹ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ³² tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ³³ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ³⁴ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.