Nehemiah 5:11
Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them. Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.
The rebuke to which the verse belongs was given before the wall of Jerusalem was finished, when the poorer classes were distressed by scarcity of grain because tillage had been neglected in the unsettled state of the country and because the selfish course of some kept the blessing of the Lord from resting on the land. To obtain food the needy were forced to buy on credit at exorbitant prices and to borrow on interest to pay the heavy taxes imposed by the kings of Persia, while the more wealthy Jews used their necessities to enrich themselves. At that time poor families, including women and children, had to buy food on credit from vendors and merchants in a crowded and strained marketplace.
The verse demands immediate restoration on that very day of lands, vineyards, oliveyards, and houses, together with the hundredth part exacted on money, corn, wine, and oil. The demand rests on the law given through Moses, which forbade acting as a usurer toward a poor fellow Israelite and taking interest on money, food, or anything lent, and commanded an open hand to lend enough to meet a poor brother's need because the poor would never cease from the land. It rests also on provision for the needy in a tithe every third year for the poor and in leaving the land fallow every seventh year with its self-grown produce left to those in need, and faithfulness in such offerings for relief and benevolent uses would keep before the people that God owns all and they may be channels of blessing, training them away from selfishness toward breadth and nobility of character. The rebuke exposed Jewish rulers for enslaving their brethren for worldly gain while others were ransoming Jews who had been sold to foreigners.
To restore in the verse means to stop extortion, give back the property of the poor and the profit and increase exacted from them, and lend to them without security or usury. Nehemiah backed the demand by his own example of refusing even what justly belonged to him under Persian authority and giving liberally to relieve the needy, by appealing to walk in the fear of God because of the reproach of heathen enemies, and by calling the rulers to examine and correct their own injustice rather than punish others for it, thus boldly defending his downtrodden countrymen, pressing the offenders to remove the reproach on them, and standing firmly for God's law without compromise. Spoken before the whole congregation, the demand left the guilty rulers without excuse, and they promised to restore all and require nothing, binding themselves by oath before the priests while the congregation assented and praised, and they did according to the promise.