Nehemiah 5:12
Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise. Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.
The promise belongs to the time when the wall of Jerusalem had not yet been completed, when the poorer Jews were in distress from scarcity of grain. Tillage had been neglected in the unsettled state of the country, and because of the selfish course of some who had returned to Judea blessing was not resting on their land. To get food the poor had to buy on credit at exorbitant prices and borrow on interest to pay the heavy taxes imposed by the kings of Persia, while the wealthier Jews took advantage of their necessities to enrich themselves. It was a time of strain when poor families, including women and children, had to buy food on credit from vendors and merchants in a crowded marketplace.
The promise to restore and require nothing was made in answer to the commands for the poor given through Moses. Those commands required raising a tithe every third year for the benefit of the poor, and suspending agricultural labor every seventh year with the land lying fallow and its spontaneous products left to those in need. They required never acting as an usurer or lending upon usury of money, food, or anything lent upon usury, and never hardening the heart or shutting the hand from a poor brother but opening the hand wide and surely lending sufficient for his need in what he lacks, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Faithfulness in devoting these offerings to relief of the poor and other benevolent uses would keep fresh before the people the truth of divine ownership of all and their opportunity to be channels of blessing, and would train them to eradicate selfishness and develop breadth and nobility of character.
The promise followed a confrontation in which the enslaving of brethren for worldly gain was contrasted with redeeming Jews sold to the heathen. In that confrontation an appeal was made to the fear of God, a warning was given that injustice would make them a reproach even among the heathen, and attention was pointed to a personal example of forgoing what might have been demanded as governor by authority of the Persian king and of liberally contributing to relieve the people. The verse records the agreement of the nobles, rulers, and extortioners to stop oppressing their brethren, to restore the poor people's lands and return the money and provisions and increase they had exacted, to require nothing further of them, and to do as directed. The agreement included lending without security or interest or usury.
The agreement was secured by calling the priests and taking an oath of the offenders before them to do according to the promise, making their commitment binding and ensuring they would carry it out. In this the verse shows that oppression was to be stopped and restitution made, and that divine law was upheld with religious integrity. It shows bold defense of the poor and oppressed when they appealed for redress of their wrongs, using authority in their behalf to cause the wrongdoers to remove the reproach resting on them. That authority was exercised for downtrodden countrymen and not for self, and service for the people was continued calmly and unselfishly without slackening, even when met with ingratitude and treachery, without using power to punish the traitors.