Nehemiah 5:10, commentary and pictures

The wall of Jerusalem had not yet been completed when poorer Jews fell into unhappy condition, for tillage had been neglected while the country was unsettled and the selfish course of some who had returned kept the blessing from resting on the land, so that grain grew scarce. To feed their families the poor had to buy on credit at exorbitant prices and to borrow money on interest to pay the heavy taxes imposed by the kings of Persia, while the more wealthy among the Jews took advantage of the necessities of the poor to enrich themselves by exacting money and corn. Poor families buying food on credit are seen in a crowded and strained marketplace, where weary men, women, and children gather around vendors and merchants at counters and stalls with sacks and baskets of provisions.

Nehemiah, his relatives and brethren, and his servants and associates could have demanded money and grain from the people, for he was invested with authority from the Persian king by which he might have demanded large contributions for personal benefit. He did not use that authority for personal gain and did not take even what justly belonged to him, but gave liberally to relieve the poor in need, after he and others had ransomed Jews who had been sold to the heathen. The call to leave off exacting money and corn as usury rests on what God had already forbidden Israel through Moses, not to be as an usurer to the poor nor to lend upon usury of money, victuals, or anything lent upon usury, but to open the hand wide and lend sufficient for need.

That prohibition belonged to God's wider provision for the poor in the tithe raised every third year for their benefit and in the suspension of agricultural labor every seventh year, with the land lying fallow and its spontaneous products left to those in need. Faithfulness in these offerings for relief of the poor and other benevolent uses keeps fresh the truth of God's ownership of all and the opportunity to be channels of blessing. Such faithfulness is God's appointed training to eradicate selfishness and develop breadth and nobility of character. On the ground of his own conduct, in contrast with rulers who for worldly gain were enslaving their brethren, Nehemiah rebuked extortion as not good and contrary to walking in the fear of God because of the reproach of the heathen enemies.

He urged the guilty rulers to cease exacting usury, to restore the lands of the poor and the increase of money, money and provisions taken from them, and to lend to them without security or usury and interest. They promised before the whole congregation to do so and confirmed it by oath before the priests. Refusing such exactions and unjust gain is a matter of justice and reverence for God and fear of God, a defense of people's rights and righteous principle, and religious integrity that remains true to God and the principles of His law. It calls for ending usury and unjust exactions and exploitative, oppressive, self-serving dealings among fellow believers, in response to the people's hardship and oppression.

Nehemiah stood boldly in defense of the poor and oppressed when they appealed for redress of their wrongs, using his authority to cause those exacting money and corn as usury to remove the reproach resting on them. That same authority he exercised for his downtrodden countrymen he did not exercise for himself when his efforts were met with ingratitude and treachery. He went forward calmly and unselfishly in service for the people without slackening his efforts, lessening his interest, or using his power to bring the traitors to punishment.