Nehemiah 5:4

Yet a third class is mentioned, who had been compelled to borrow in order to pay the taxes and, not having the means to pay their creditors, sold their children as slaves.

we have borrowed … for the king's tribute One special cause of distress seems to have been the heaviness of the royal taxes. Jews who were poor to start with and impoverished by recent circumstances, found themselves under the necessity of borrowing in order to pay the tribute levied by the Persian king from his foreign subjects. See on -tribute" note on Ezra 4:13; Ezra 4:20; Ezra 6:8; Ezra 7:24. On the severity of this taxation in the Persian Empire see Nehemiah 9:37.

and that upon our lands and vineyards R.V. upon our fields and vineyards. The poor people, in order to pay the tax, borrowed money upon the security of their small holdings. In this way a considerable portion of the property of the poorer classes had passed into the hands of the wealthy money-lenders, who exacted high usury (Nehemiah 5:11), and had no compunction in plying their trade, and visiting default of payment with seizure of a fellow-countryman's is the way to where light dwelleth?

Light and darkness are here regarded as things independent of one another; they are both real agents, each of which has its place or abode, from which it streams forth over the earth, and to which it is again taken back (Job 38:20).