Nehemiah 5:16

_YEA, ALSO I CONTINUED IN THE WORK OF THIS WALL, NEITHER BOUGHT WE ANY LAND: AND ALL MY SERVANTS WERE GATHERED THITHER UNTO THE WORK._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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....

Verse 16. _NEITHER BOUGHT WE ANY LAND_] Neither he nor his officers took any advantage of the necessities of the people, to buy their lands, c. He even made his own servants to work at the wall....

I CONTINUED ... LAND - i. e. - “I took my share in the work of the wall, as general superintendent. I did not take advantage of the general poverty to buy poor men’s plots of ground.”...

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

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. WE _._ Some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "I...

_Yea also I continued in the work_, &c. R.V. marg. -Heb. _held fast to_". It does not appear certain whether Nehemiah here refers to his continuous supervision of the building or to his personal share in the work of restoration at his own cost of some portion of it. The word rendered -continued" (used in its literal sense of -held" in Nehemiah 4:16) admits of either application. _neither bought we any land_ In connexion with the previous and the following clauses, these words should be taken to mean that Nehemiah and his friends were too strenuously occupied to interest themselves in the purchase of lands. Former governors had possibly made investments in good land. Such transactions were incompatible with Nehemiah's ceaseless devotion to the work. But it is necessary also to regard the words as an allusion to the substance of...

3. Nehemiah vindicates his own conduct. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 5:14-19 14 Moreover, from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governor's food allowance. 15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people, But I did not do so because of the fear of God. 16 And I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. 17 Moreover, there were at my table one hundred and fifty Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. 18 Now th