Nehemiah 5:15

_BUT THE FORMER GOVERNORS THAT HAD BEEN BEFORE ME WERE CHARGEABLE UNTO THE PEOPLE, AND HAD TAKEN OF THEM BREAD AND WINE, BESIDE FORTY SHEKELS OF SILVER; YEA, EVEN THEIR SERVANTS BARE RULE OVER THE PEOPLE: BUT SO DID NOT I, BECAUSE OF THE FEAR OF GOD._ The former governors ... had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. The income of Eastern governors is paid partly in produce, partly in money. "Bread" means all sorts of provisions. The forty shekels of silver per day would amount to a yearly salary of 1,800 British pounds sterling. More than two or three governors are evidently intended. Zerubbabel was still Tirshatha in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, and there is reason to believe that he was holding this office in the sixth of that monarch's reign. How long he survived the building of the temple is not known. But more than one governor intervened between h...

14-19 Those who truly fear God, will not dare to do any thing cruel or unjust. Let all who are in public places remember that they are so placed to do good, not to enrich themselves. Nehemiah mentions it to God in prayer, not as if he had merited any favour from God, but to show that he depended upon God only, to make up to him what he had lost and laid out for his honour. Nehemiah evidently spake and acted as one that knew himself to be a sinner. He did not mean to claim a reward as of debt, but in the manner that the Lord rewards a cup of cold water given to a disciple for his sake. The fear and love of God in the heart, and true love of the brethren, will lead to every good work. These are proper evidences of justifying faith; and our reconciled God will look upon persons of this character for good, according to all they have done for his people....

FORTY SHEKELS OF SILVER - A daily sum from the entire province. For such a table as that kept by Nehemiah Nehemiah 5:18, this would be a very moderate payment....

EXPOSITION GENERAL ACCOUNT OF NEHEMIAH'S GOVERNMENT (Nehemiah 5:14). Having given this account of the internal difficulties which threatened to put a stop to the building of the wall before it was well begun, and been led in the course of it to speak of the poverty and sufferings of the common people, Nehemiah not unnaturally goes on to inform us of the methods by which in his general government he endeavoured to alleviate the distress, or at any rate to avoid adding to the burthens which pressed upon the poorer classes. From the time that he entered upon his office, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, B.C. 444, to the time of his writing this portion of his Book, in the thirty-second year of the same king, B.C. 432, he had lived entirely at his own expe

FEAR (_ See Scofield) - (Psalms 19:9). _...

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The complaint of oppression (Nehemiah 5:1)_ 2. Nehemiah's rebuke and demands (Nehemiah 5:6) 3. Nehemiah's generosity (Nehemiah 5:14) Nehemiah 5:1. The internal conditions among the toiling people were serious. The work which was done in rebuilding the walls was a labor of love; no wages were paid. As the people were thus engaged their other occupations, including agriculture, had to be neglected. As a result the poor had been driven to mortgage their lands, vineyards and houses in order to buy corn, because of the dearth. The rich had taken advantage of this and had enslaved their sons an

NEHEMIAH ENUMERATES THE OUTSTANDING FEATURES OF HIS BENEFICENT RULE. The main points here are that Nehemiah and his subordinate officials had not taken advantage of their undoubted right of exacting provisions from the people (I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor, i.e. the sustenance which he, as the governor, had a right to claim); secondly, he recalls how tenaciously he clung to his purpose of the rebuilding of the walls (Nehemiah 5:16); and thirdly, he reminds the people of the way in which he had supported the poor (Nehemiah 5:17 f.). Nehemiah 5:14. from the twentieth. the king: _i.e._ 445- 433 B.C.; in the latter year he went back to Babylon for a short visit ...

See Nehemiah 5:14 for. longer note that applies to this verse. BESIDE. Heb, _'ahar_. after: i.e. after the rate of, as in Jeremiah 3:17; Jeremiah 18:12. Rendered "beside" only here, out of several hundred times....

_the former governors that_had been _before me_ R.V. THE FORMER GOVERNORS THAT WERE BEFORE ME. The governors or Pekhahs here referred to by Nehemiah are those of Jerusalem and the neighbouring district. Zerubbabel was the first. We do not know how many there had been in the interval, nor whether they like Nehemiah were Jews. _were chargeable unto_ R.V. marg. -Or, _laid burdens upon_". Literally the word means -made heavy;" and we should expect here some such word after it as -their yoke" or -burden," as in Isaiah 47:6. -Upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." Lamentations 3:7, -he hath made my chain heavy." 1 Kings 12:10, -Thy father made our yoke heavy," and 14; ...

DISCOURSE: 441 THE FEAR OF GOD A PRINCIPLE OF ACTION Nehemiah 5:15. _So did not I, because of the fear of God_. IT is obvious that there are in the world a people whose conduct differs widely from that of the world around them: and, in attempting to account for it, some impute it to pride and vanity, some to weakness and folly, and some to downright hypocrisy. But, if men would examine into this matter with candour, they might easily find a principle abundantly sufficient to account for all the singularity they observe: and this principle is “The fear of God.” By this Nehemiah was actuated, whilst, in the governing of Israel, he maintained a system directly opposed to that of all who had preceded him. They all had exacted from the people, even in their low impoverished state, such contributions as they judged necessary for the upholding of their dignity and the discharge