Nehemiah 5
5:1And the cry of the people and their wives was great against their brethren of the Jews.
5:2And there were some saying, With our sons and with our daughters we are many; and we shall take grain, and shall eat and shall live.
5:3And there are some saying, Our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses we mortgaged, and we shall take grain and we shall eat.
5:4And there are some saying, We borrowed money for tribute of the king of our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses.
5:5And now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren; as their sons our sons; and behold, we are tyrannizing over our sons and our daughters selling them for servants, and there are some of our daughters being tyrannized already; and there is no power to redeem them by our hands, for our fields and our vineyards belong to the important ones.
5:6And I fretted very much as I heard their cry and these words.
5:7And my heart took counsel with me, and I did combat against the important ones, and the rulers. And I said to them, Shall a man exact from his brother what you do? And I put upon them a great assembly.
5:8And I said to them, We have acquired our brethren of the Jews, of the ones having been sold to the nations, by our voluntary offerings; and do you sell your brethren? Or shall they be sold to us? And they were quiet, and they did not find a word.
5:9And I said, The matter is not good which you do. Should you not go forth thus in the fear of our God because of the scorn of the nations of our enemies?
5:10And also I, and my brethren, and my acquaintances, put up for them money and grain; we abandoned indeed this exaction.
5:11Return indeed to them, even today, their fields, and their vineyards, and their olive groves, and their houses, and of the money for the grain, and bring forth to them the wine and the olive oil!
5:12And they said, We will give it back, and we will not seek from them, we shall do thus as you say. And I called the priests, and bound them by an oath to do as this saying.
5:13And I shook off my wrap, and said, Thus shall God shake off every man who does not stand by this word, of his house, and of his toil; and he will be thus shaken and empty. And all the assembly said, Amen. And they praised the lord. And the people did this thing.
5:14And also from the day which he gave charge to me to be as their ruler in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year, and until the thirtieth and second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, that even I and my brethren did not eat bread of my governing.
5:15But the rulers, the ones before me, oppressed upon the people, and took from them in bread loaves and in wine; and last money of forty shekels. And also their servants dominated over the people. But I did not do so because of the countenance of the fear of the lord.
5:16And in the work of the wall I repaired these things. I did not acquire fields of land, and my servants and all the ones gathering were there for work.
5:17And the Jews, and the rulers were a hundred fifty men, and the ones coming to us from the nations round about us were at my table.
5:18And there was coming in one day -- one calf, and six choice sheep, and a winter yearling; there came to me also in the midst of ten days all wine in multitude. And with these I did not seek bread of my governing, for the slavery was heavy upon this people.
5:19Remember me, O God! for all good as much as I did to this people.