There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.
The verse records the distress of the poorer Jews after the return of the exiles from Babylon, while the wall of Jerusalem was still unfinished. Tillage had been neglected in the unsettled country, and the selfish course of some of the returned people had kept God's blessing from the land, bringing scarcity of grain. Some of the people had borrowed money to pay the king's tribute, pledging and mortgaging their lands and vineyards as security. The borrowing was on interest, to meet the heavy tribute and taxes imposed by the kings of Persia under foreign rule.
The hardship was increased by famine, crop failure, and scarcity amid neglected farming, which forced the poor into debt and left them burdened with debt. The poor also had to buy food on credit at exorbitant prices. This hardship was not caused by laziness or wastefulness.
God had already provided for such need by commanding a third-year tithe for the benefit of the poor and by leaving the spontaneous produce of the seventh-year fallow land to those in need. Faithfulness in devoting these offerings to relief of the poor and other benevolent uses would have kept fresh the truth of God's ownership of all and their opportunity to be channels of blessing. It would have trained them to eradicate selfishness and develop breadth and nobility of character.
For such borrowing God had commanded not to act as an usurer to the poor and not to lend upon usury of money, victuals, or anything lent upon usury. He had commanded not to harden the heart nor shut the hand from a poor brother, but to open the hand wide and surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he lacks, because the poor shall never cease out of the land. The wealthier Jews took advantage of the necessities of the poor to enrich themselves, lending to them in direct disobedience to God's commands. They exacted a high rate of interest and took mortgages on their lands and vineyards.
This practice gradually reduced the debtors to the deepest poverty and left them with no power to redeem their children or their lands and no prospect but ever-increasing distress, perpetual want and bondage. It forced many to sell their sons and daughters into servitude. This was done even though oppressors and oppressed were of the same nation and children of the same covenant. The verse belongs to the account of the poor and oppressed appealing to Nehemiah over these wrongs, and Nehemiah defended them and made the wrongdoers remove the reproach resting on them.
The verse records the distress of the poorer Jews after the return of the exiles from Babylon, while the wall of Jerusalem was still unfinished. Tillage had been neglected in the unsettled country, and the selfish course of some of the returned people had kept God's blessing from the land, bringing scarcity of grain. Some of the people had borrowed money to pay the king's tribute, pledging and mortgaging their lands and vineyards as security. The borrowing was on interest, to meet the heavy tribute and taxes imposed by the kings of Persia under foreign rule.
The hardship was increased by famine, crop failure, and scarcity amid neglected farming, which forced the poor into debt and left them burdened with debt. The poor also had to buy food on credit at exorbitant prices. This hardship was not caused by laziness or wastefulness.
God had already provided for such need by commanding a third-year tithe for the benefit of the poor and by leaving the spontaneous produce of the seventh-year fallow land to those in need. Faithfulness in devoting these offerings to relief of the poor and other benevolent uses would have kept fresh the truth of God's ownership of all and their opportunity to be channels of blessing. It would have trained them to eradicate selfishness and develop breadth and nobility of character.
For such borrowing God had commanded not to act as an usurer to the poor and not to lend upon usury of money, victuals, or anything lent upon usury. He had commanded not to harden the heart nor shut the hand from a poor brother, but to open the hand wide and surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he lacks, because the poor shall never cease out of the land. The wealthier Jews took advantage of the necessities of the poor to enrich themselves, lending to them in direct disobedience to God's commands. They exacted a high rate of interest and took mortgages on their lands and vineyards.
This practice gradually reduced the debtors to the deepest poverty and left them with no power to redeem their children or their lands and no prospect but ever-increasing distress, perpetual want and bondage. It forced many to sell their sons and daughters into servitude. This was done even though oppressors and oppressed were of the same nation and children of the same covenant. The verse belongs to the account of the poor and oppressed appealing to Nehemiah over these wrongs, and Nehemiah defended them and made the wrongdoers remove the reproach resting on them.