Nehemiah 5:7

_THEN I CONSULTED WITH MYSELF, AND I REBUKED THE NOBLES, AND THE RULERS, AND SAID UNTO THEM, YE EXACT USURY, EVERY ONE OF HIS BROTHER. AND I SET A GREAT ASSEMBLY AGAINST THEM._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

6-13 Nehemiah knew that, if he built Jerusalem's walls ever so high, so thick, or so strong, the city could not be safe while there were abuses. The right way to reform men's lives, is to convince their consciences. If you walk in the fear of God, you will not be either covetous of worldly gain, or cruel toward your brethren. Nothing exposes religion more to reproach, than the worldliness and hard-heartedness of the professors of it. Those that rigorously insist upon their right, with a very ill grace try to persuade others to give up theirs. In reasoning with selfish people, it is good to contrast their conduct with that of others who are liberal; but it is best to point to His example, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich, 2 Corinthians 8:9. They did according to promise. Good promises are good things, but good performances...

Verse Nehemiah 5:7. _YE EXACT USURY_] This was expressly contrary to the law of God; and was doubly cruel at this time, when they were just returning out of the land of their captivity, and were suffering from the effects of a _dearth_. Some think that it was about the time of a Sabbatical year, when their land must have lain at rest without cultivation, and during which they were expressly commanded not to exact any debt. Deuteronomy 15:2. _I SET A GREAT ASSEMBLY AGAINST THEM._] Brought all these delinquents before the rulers of the people....

YE EXACT USURY - The phrase is unique to Nehemiah, and is best explained by the context, which shows the practice of the rich Jews at the time to have been not so much to lend on usury as to lend on mortgage and pledge....

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

THEN. And. RULERS. See note on Nehemiah 2:16. EXACT USURY. It was twelve per cent. See Nehemiah 5:11. ONE. man. SET. appointed. ASSEMBLY. body [of witnesses.] Hebrew. _kehallah_ (feminine.) Occurs only here and Deuteronomy 33:4. AGAINST. over....

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 end of a sabbatical year, after the law, which forbad every creature to exact any debt of his neighbour or his brother, Deuteronomy 15:2 had been so frequently read. This raised the cry of the poor to a greater height, having been forced to sell their children, and being deprived now of all power to redeem them, because their lands were mortgaged to these oppressors. See Bishop Patrick....

2. Nehemiah protests, and offers a solution. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 5:6-13 6 Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words. 7 And I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, You are exacting usury, each from his brother! Therefore, I held a great assembly against them. 8 And I said to them, We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us? Then they were silent and could not find a word to say. 9 Again I said, The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 10 And likewise I, my brothers and my servants, are lending them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this