²¹ So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he ground at the mill in the prison.

⁴ They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,^[a] and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.^(A)

Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

5 Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish kin.^{(A) 2} For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; we must get grain, so that we may eat and stay alive.” ³ There were also those who said, “We are having to pledge our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in order to get grain during the famine.” ⁴ And there were those who said, “We are having to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s tax.^{(B) 5} Now our flesh is the same as that of our kindred; our children are the same as their children; and yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been ravished; we are powerless, and our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”^(C)

⁵ “When you see the donkey of one who hates you struggling under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.^(A)

⁵ Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill and all the firstborn of the livestock.^(A)

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.^(A)