Nehemiah 5:17
Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us. Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, beside those that came unto us from among the heathen that are about us.
The verse belongs to the time when the wall of Jerusalem had not yet been completed and tillage had been neglected in the unsettled country. Selfishness among those who had returned to Judea had caused the blessing to be withheld from the land, so grain was scarce. The poor had to buy food on credit at exorbitant prices and borrow on interest to pay the heavy taxes imposed by the kings of Persia, while the wealthier Jews were enriching themselves from the necessities of the poor.
It belongs to Nehemiah's dealing with oppression of the poor, to be measured by the commands that every third year a tithe be raised for the poor and every seventh year the land lie fallow with its spontaneous produce left to those in need. Money was not to be lent to the poor as a usurer, and no usury was to be charged to a brother on money or food or anything lent. The hand was to be opened wide to lend what is sufficient for need because the poor shall never cease out of the land. Faithfulness in these offerings for relief of the poor and other benevolent uses was meant to keep fresh the ownership of all and the opportunity to be channels of blessing, training Israel out of selfishness into breadth and nobility of character.