And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
There was a great outcry of the common and poor people and their wives against their fellow Jews, their wealthy Jewish brethren, raised while the wall of Jerusalem was still unfinished after the return from Babylon. The need behind the cry came from neglected tillage in the unsettled country, failed harvests and scarce grain amounting to famine, and heavy taxes and tribute imposed by the kings of Persia, with the selfish course of some keeping the Lord's blessing from resting on the land. To get food for their families the poor had to buy on credit at exorbitant and high prices and to borrow on interest to pay the tribute, while the wealthier Jews took advantage of their necessities to enrich themselves.
The wealthy lenders charged high interest contrary to God's commands and took mortgages on lands, homes and vineyards until the debtors were reduced to the deepest poverty. Many were forced to sell sons and daughters into servitude and to bring children into bondage, with no power to redeem them or their lands, leaving ever-increasing distress, perpetual want and bondage without hope of improvement. This oppression disregarded God's provisions for the poor: a tithe every third year for their benefit, suspension of agricultural labor every seventh year with the land lying fallow and its spontaneous products left to those in need, the prohibition on being as an usurer or lending upon usury of money, victuals or anything lent upon usury, and the command not to harden the heart nor shut the hand from a poor brother but to open the hand wide and lend him sufficient for his need, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Faithfulness in these offerings for relief of the poor and other benevolent uses would have kept fresh the truth of God's ownership of all and the opportunity to be channels of blessing, training Israel to eradicate selfishness and develop breadth and nobility of character.
The sufferers' hardship came not from idleness, laziness or wastefulness but from hardship and deprivation, and the wrong was aggravated because oppressors and oppressed were of the same nation and children of the same covenant, sharing the same standing and family affections. The verse exposes unjust treatment and oppression among God's people and introduces a crisis of hunger, debt and deprivation and Nehemiah's response. The poor and oppressed cried to Nehemiah for redress, and he stood boldly in defense of his downtrodden countrymen and caused the wrongdoers to remove the reproach, exercising authority in behalf of others in contrast to his later course when he did not use his power in his own behalf to punish ingratitude and treachery but went forward calmly and unselfishly in service without slackening efforts or lessening interest.
There was a great outcry of the common and poor people and their wives against their fellow Jews, their wealthy Jewish brethren, raised while the wall of Jerusalem was still unfinished after the return from Babylon. The need behind the cry came from neglected tillage in the unsettled country, failed harvests and scarce grain amounting to famine, and heavy taxes and tribute imposed by the kings of Persia, with the selfish course of some keeping the Lord's blessing from resting on the land. To get food for their families the poor had to buy on credit at exorbitant and high prices and to borrow on interest to pay the tribute, while the wealthier Jews took advantage of their necessities to enrich themselves.
The wealthy lenders charged high interest contrary to God's commands and took mortgages on lands, homes and vineyards until the debtors were reduced to the deepest poverty. Many were forced to sell sons and daughters into servitude and to bring children into bondage, with no power to redeem them or their lands, leaving ever-increasing distress, perpetual want and bondage without hope of improvement. This oppression disregarded God's provisions for the poor: a tithe every third year for their benefit, suspension of agricultural labor every seventh year with the land lying fallow and its spontaneous products left to those in need, the prohibition on being as an usurer or lending upon usury of money, victuals or anything lent upon usury, and the command not to harden the heart nor shut the hand from a poor brother but to open the hand wide and lend him sufficient for his need, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Faithfulness in these offerings for relief of the poor and other benevolent uses would have kept fresh the truth of God's ownership of all and the opportunity to be channels of blessing, training Israel to eradicate selfishness and develop breadth and nobility of character.
The sufferers' hardship came not from idleness, laziness or wastefulness but from hardship and deprivation, and the wrong was aggravated because oppressors and oppressed were of the same nation and children of the same covenant, sharing the same standing and family affections. The verse exposes unjust treatment and oppression among God's people and introduces a crisis of hunger, debt and deprivation and Nehemiah's response. The poor and oppressed cried to Nehemiah for redress, and he stood boldly in defense of his downtrodden countrymen and caused the wrongdoers to remove the reproach, exercising authority in behalf of others in contrast to his later course when he did not use his power in his own behalf to punish ingratitude and treachery but went forward calmly and unselfishly in service without slackening efforts or lessening interest.