Nehemiah 5:1-13

Jubilee Bible 2000

5 ¶ Then there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren, the Jews.

² For there were some that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many; therefore we have bought grain that we may eat and live.

³ There were also some that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.

⁴ And there were some that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.

⁵ Yet now, given that the flesh of our brethren is as our flesh and their sons as our sons, behold, we subject our sons and our daughters to slavery, and there are some of our daughters in bondage already; neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

⁶ ¶ And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

⁷ Then I meditated unto myself, and I rebuked the principals and the rulers and said unto them, Does each one of you exact usury of his brother? And I set a great assembly against them.

⁸ And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren, the Jews who had been sold unto the Gentiles; and will ye even sell your brethren? And shall they be sold unto us? Then they remained silent, for they had nothing to answer.

⁹ Also I said, What you do is not good, do you not walk in the fear of our God, that ye not be the reproach of our enemies the Gentiles?

¹⁰ I, likewise, and my brethren and my servants, have lent them money and grain; let us now release them from this burden.

¹¹ Restore, I pray you, to them, today, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, and even the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

¹² Then they said, We will return it and will require nothing of them; so we will do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests and caused them to sware that they should do according to this promise.

¹³ Also I shook my lap and said, Thus will God shake out each man from his house and from his labour, that does not perform this promise, even thus shall he be shaken out and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.