Nehemiah 5:7-9
The Voice
7 After reflecting over what to do, I determined to confront those responsible directly: the Jewish nobles and the officials who represented Araxerxes’ interests in Jerusalem.
Nehemiah: You are exploiting your own people by charging them interest!
And a great many people assembled to witness my sentencing of the leaders.
Nehemiah: 8 At great expense we have been laboring to buy back our brothers and sisters, fellow Jews who have been enslaved to pagan nations. Now we discover that you are the ones selling them away in the first place—we are buying them from you!
There was nothing they could say; their silence confirmed their guilt.
Nehemiah: 9 This thing you are doing is not good. Is it not good to walk and live our lives in fear of the awesomeness of our True God? Your actions cause our enemies, those pagan nations, to mock us.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
