I considered these things carefully and then registered a complaint with the wealthy and the officials. I said to them,“Each one of you is seizing the collateral from your own countrymen!” Because of them I called for a great public assembly.
These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.
1 Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
2 There were those who said,“With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.”
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.”
4 Then there were those who said,“We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards.
5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, and our children are just like their children, still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.”
6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints.
8 I said to them,“To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.
9 Then I said,“The thing that you are doing is wrong! Should you not conduct yourselves in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?
10 Even I and my relatives and my associates are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral!
11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”
12 They replied,“We will return these things, 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 swear to do what had been promised.
13 I also shook out my garment, and I said,“In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out 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.
14 From the day that I was appointed governor in the land of Judah, that is, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes– twelve years in all– neither I nor my relatives ate the food allotted to the governor.
15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.
16 I gave myself to the work on this wall, without even purchasing a field. All my associates were gathered there for the work.
17 There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, in addition to those who came to us from the nations all around us.
11 So I registered a complaint with the leaders, asking,“Why is the temple of God neglected?” Then I gathered them and reassigned them to their positions.
17 So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them,“What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
9 We inquired of those elders, asking them,‘Who gave you the authority to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?’
5 My God placed it on my heart to gather the leaders, the officials, and the ordinary people so they could be enrolled on the basis of genealogy. I found the genealogical records of those who had formerly returned. Here is what I found written in that record:
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.
17 Then I said to them,“You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”
21 But I warned them and said,“Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath.
7 and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God.
8 I was very upset, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the storeroom.
24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, together with Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers,
25 and I weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the vessels intended for the temple of our God– items that the king, his advisers, his officials, and all Israel who were present had contributed.
3 They said to me,“The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!”
4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
8 “I also hereby issue orders as to what you are to do with those elders of the Jews in order to rebuild this temple of God. From the royal treasury, from the taxes of Trans-Euphrates the complete costs are to be given to these men, so that there may be no interruption of the work.
19 I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people,“The work is demanding and extensive, and we are spread out on the wall, far removed from one another.
4 Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering.
28 He has also conferred his favor on me before the king, his advisers, and all the influential leaders of the king. I gained strength as the hand of the LORD my God was on me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.
7 You have also established prophets to announce in Jerusalem on your behalf,‘We have a king in Judah!’ Now the king is going to hear about these rumors. So come on! Let’s talk about this.”
14 Let our leaders take steps on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”
21 I called for a fast there by the Ahava Canal, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a safe journey for us, our children, and all our property.
14 When I had made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people,“Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awesome Lord, and fight on behalf of your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your families!”
15 It so happened that when our adversaries heard that we were aware of these matters, God frustrated their intentions. Then all of us returned to the wall, each to his own work.
12 I recognized the fact that God had not sent him, for he had spoken the prophecy against me as a hired agent of Tobiah and Sanballat.
25 So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying,“You will not marry off your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard all this, they derided us and expressed contempt toward us. They said,“What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 I responded to them by saying,“The God of heaven will prosper us. We his servants will start the rebuilding. But you have no just or ancient right in Jerusalem.”
3 At that time Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues came to them and asked,“Who gave you authority to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?”
4 They also asked them,“What are the names of the men who are building this edifice?”
27 Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign wives?”
15 The Exiles Travel to Jerusalem I had them assemble at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there for three days. I observed that the people and the priests were present, but I found no Levites there.
11 Now listen to me! Send back those you have seized from your brothers, for the LORD is very angry at you!”
7 (4:1) When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry.
1 Opposition to the Work Continues(3:33) Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he became angry and was quite upset. He derided the Jews,
8 Everyone who did not come within three days would thereby forfeit all his property, in keeping with the counsel of the officials and the elders. Furthermore, he himself would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.