Nehemiah 5:3

_FOR THERE WERE THAT SAID, WE, OUR SONS, AND OUR DAUGHTERS, ARE MANY: THEREFORE WE TAKE UP CORN FOR THEM, THAT WE MAY EAT, AND LIVE._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

1-5 Men prey upon their fellow-creatures: by despising the poor they reproach their Maker. Such conduct is a disgrace to any, but who can sufficiently abhor it when adopted by professing Christians? With compassion for the oppressed, we should lament the hardships which many in the world are groaning under; putting our souls into their souls' stead, and remembering in our prayers and succours those who are burdened. But let those who show no mercy, expect judgment without mercy....

Verse Nehemiah 5:3. _BECAUSE OF THE DEARTH._] About the time of Zerubbabel, God had sent a judicial dearth upon the land, as we learn from _Haggai_, Haggai 1:9, c., for the people it seems were more intent on building houses for themselves than on rebuilding the house of the Lord: "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it is come to little because of mine house that is waste; and ye run, every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brought forth; and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands." This dearth might have been continued, or its effects still felt; b...

EXPOSITION INTERNAL DIFFICULTIES, AND NEHEMIAH'S MODE OF MEETING THEM (Nehemiah 5:1). While the building of the wall was in progress, but not, so far as it is stated, in direct connection with the employment of the mass of the people in unremunerative labour, internal evils showed themselves which demanded prompt attention and remedy. Complaints were made to Nehemiah by large numbers of the lower orders, both men and women—the shrill voices of the latter rising to the intensity of a "great cry" (verse 1)—to the effect that the oppression of the rich and great, combined with some other permanent or temporary causes, was depriving them of their houses and plots of land, and forcing them to sell their sons and their daughters into slavery (vers

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

DISTRESS AMONG THE JEWS. Neither this nor the next section, Nehemiah 5:14 (the two belong closely together) can be in their right place. Nehemiah 5:1 deals with the economic straits to which the Jews had been reduced through want of food; yet the text nowhere hints that their evil plight was in any way the result of the building of the walls; besides, this building did not take long enough (see Nehemiah 6:15) to occasion such widespread suffering as the narrative seems to indicate, even supposing the entire population to have ceased their ordinary work in order to give themselves to the work of building, a thing which Nehemiah 4:12

HAVE MORTGAGED. are mortgaging. THE DEARTH. One of the thirteen famines (App-10) recorded in Scripture. See note on Genesis 12:10....

Some _also_ The complaint in this verse is that among the poorer classes, those who had a little property were compelled to mortgage it in order to obtain the bare necessaries of life. _We_have _mortgaged_ R.V. WE ARE MORTGAGING. The Hebrew verb expresses a state of things going on at the time. _our lands, vineyards, and houses_ R.V. OUR FIELDS, AND OUR VINEYARDS, AND OUR HOUSES. -Fields" is better than -lands," which is too large and general a word. The three words refer to the corn-fields, vineyards, and dwellings, such as the poorer householders might possess. For the tenacity with which the possession of house or land was retained in a family, cf. 1 Kings 21. In the Hebrew these three words stand emphatically at the head of the sentence corresponding to -our sons and our daughters" in the previous verse. _that we might buy corn_ R.V....

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 their poor brethren, but forced them to part with all they had for bread; and now, which made them still more miserable, another dearth was come upon them, which might easily happen from the multitude of people employed in the repair of the wall; from the building-work, which hindered them from providing for their families some other way; and from the daily dread that they had of their enemies, which might keep them from going abroad for provision, and the country people from bringing it in. Houbigant renders the last part

TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENT E. Internal difficulties arise and are overcome. 1. Selfishness and greed create a problem. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 5:1-5 1 Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 For there were those who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live. 3 And there were others who said, We are mortgaging our fields our vineyards, and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine. 4 Also there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5 And now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children. Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bo