_NEHEMIAH, HAVING HEARD THE COMPLAINTS OF THE POOR AGAINST THE RICH, CALLS AN ASSEMBLY, UPBRAIDS THE RICH, AND PERSUADES THEM TO ASSIST THEIR BRETHREN, AND RELEASE THEM FROM THEIR DEBTS. AN ACCOUNT OF NEHEMIAH'S GENEROSITY AND HOSPITALITY._ _Before Christ 445._... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE OF THE DEARTH— Not long before this, there had been a great scarcity for want of rain; which God thought proper to withhold, as a punishment for the people's taking more care to build their own houses than his, as we read, Haggai 1:9; Haggai 1:15. At this time the rich had no compassion on t... [ Continue Reading ]
YE EXACT USURY, &C.— This usury was the more grievous, because it was not only contrary to their law, and demanded at a time when they were hard at work, and their enemies threatening to destroy them all; but, as some have observed, the twentieth of Ahasuerus, wherein this was done, began about the... [ Continue Reading ]
ALSO THE HUNDREDTH PART OF THE MONEY— _And also a part of his money._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HAD TAKEN OF THEM BREAD AND WINE, &C.— _And had taken from each of them, for bread and wine, forty shekels of silver._ Houbigant. It is evident, from the great and daily expences of Nehemiah mentioned in the following verses, that either he had large remittances from the Persian court, beside hi... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THAT WHICH WAS PREPARED FOR ME, &C.— Bishop Pococke, in his Travels, vol. 1: p. 266, &c. has given us an account of the way in which the Bey of Tunis lived in 1733; not that his way of living differed from that of other Beys, it should seem; but merely as a curiosity for his readers. After descr... [ Continue Reading ]
THINK UPON ME, MY GOD, FOR GOOD— See the note on ch. Nehemiah 13:31. REFLECTIONS.—1st, We heard but lately the cry of fear, because of the enemy without; in this chapter we have the cry of the poor, because of the oppressor within. Two causes had contributed to their poverty and distress; the dearth... [ Continue Reading ]