Nehemiah 5

Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

1-5 Jewish officials are oppressing their own brethren, some of whom don’t have enough to eat. Others are having to use their houses as collateral in order to get grain, others have to borrow money to pay taxes, forcing their children into slavery.

6-9 Nehemiah charges the nobles and the officials of taking interest from the people, selling them to slavery, just as other nations had done to them, subjecting Israel to “taunts” from their enemies. Verse 7 begins, “After thinking it over….” Nehemiah was not only a man of faith and prayer, but a man of wisdom. He was very angry, but didn’t immediately react in anger.

10-11 Nehemiah, his brothers and servants were having to loan money and grain to the needy. The charging of interest must stop, and the officials must restore all their property and interest they had received. Taking interest is in direct violation to Exodus 22:25:

If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.

12-13 The people agreed. Nehemiah took an oath from the priests that they would do this, shaking out his garment as warning that whoever did not fulfill the promise would be shaken from his property. “And all the assembly said, ‘Amen,’ and praised the LORD.” They were ready to do what was right; it appealed to them.

The Generosity of Nehemiah

14-15 As long as he is governor – 12 years – Nehemiah nor his brothers take a food allowance, unlike previous governors (and their servants) who had burdened the people so they could live well. “I did not do so, because of the fear of God.”

16-18 Instead, he works on the wall, feeding 150 people every day, including Jews and officials and foreign visitors.

19 “Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.” This may not seem the humblest of statements, but it shows his accountability to God, as stated in verse 15. Gill’s comment on this:

He expected not any recompense from the people, but from the Lord; and from him not in a way of merit, but of grace and good will, who forgets not what is done for his name's sake, (Hebrews 6:10) .