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.
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1Nehemiah Intervenes on behalf of the Oppressed Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
2There were those who said,“With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.”
3There 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.”
4Then there were those who said,“We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards.
5And 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.”
6I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints.
7I 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.
9Then 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?
10Even I and my relatives and my associates are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral!
11This 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.”
12They 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.
4For we have been sold– both I and my people– to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”
8Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the temple of the great God. It is being built with large stones, and timbers are being placed in the walls. This work is being done with all diligence and is prospering in their hands.
9We inquired of those elders, asking them,‘Who gave you the authority to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?’
10We also inquired of their names in order to inform you, so that we might write the names of the men who were their leaders.
11They responded to us in the following way:‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the temple which was previously built many years ago. A great king of Israel built it and completed it.
16I gave myself to the work on this wall, without even purchasing a field. All my associates were gathered there for the work.
31We will not buy on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan.
3At 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?”
4They also asked them,“What are the names of the men who are building this edifice?”
5But God was watching over the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped until a report could be dispatched to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.
20I 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.”
16The 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.
17Then 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.”
18Then I related to them how the good hand of my God was on me and what the king had said to me. Then they replied,“Let’s begin rebuilding right away!” So they readied themselves for this good project.
9Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us to restore the temple of our God and to raise up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10“And now what are we able to say after this, our God? For we have forsaken your commandments
10And now you are planning to enslave the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the LORD your God?
11Now listen to me! Send back those you have seized from your brothers, for the LORD is very angry at you!”
6We’re eager to trade silver for the poor, a pair of sandals for the needy! We want to mix in some chaff with the grain!”
2and in the presence of his colleagues and the army of Samaria he said,“What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they be left to themselves? Will they again offer sacrifice? Will they finish this in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones to life again from piles of dust?”
22I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had said to the king,“The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger is against everyone who forsakes him.”
25and 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.
14Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?
27Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign wives?”
7Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I will repay you for what you have done!
11Our adversaries also boasted,“Before they are aware or anticipate anything, we will come in among them and kill them, and we will bring this work to a halt!”
12So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly about all the schemes they were plotting against us.
2Hanani, who was one of my relatives, along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.
3They 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!”
2Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, addressed Ezra:“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the local peoples. Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard.
4Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? If you are, I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!
12You sold your people for a pittance; you did not ask a high price for them.
15Hasn’t he treated us like foreigners? He not only sold us, but completely wasted the money paid for us!
15It 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.
21But 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.
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.
7They answered him,“Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!
17I sent them to Iddo, who was the leader in the place called Casiphia. I told them what to say to Iddo and his relatives, who were the temple servants in Casiphia, so they would bring us attendants for the temple of our God.