Context No. 3638 of 4322 · Nehemiah

Nehemiah 5:1-5: in context

1Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. 2For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” 3There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.” 4There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral. 5Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

A bitter cry rises among the returned exiles, not against outside enemies but against their own wealthier brothers. The poor are being crushed: famine, heavy taxes, and debt have forced them to mortgage their fields and vineyards, and even to sell their sons and daughters into slavery, while others hold their land.

Our flesh is the same as our brothers' flesh, they protest, yet we are forced to hand our children over into bondage. It is a scandal: God's own people exploiting one another, the rich profiting from the desperation of the poor within the same community. This kind of injustice, the strong within a community taking advantage of the weak, grieves God deeply, and, as the next verses show, Nehemiah is furious and demands that it be set right. There is a warning here that injustice is not only something done by outsiders; it can flourish among God's own people, and it must be confronted and made right. God cares how his people treat one another, especially how the strong treat the poor.

Do I care about justice within my own community, refusing to profit from others' desperation, and am I willing, like Nehemiah, to confront injustice among God's own people?

Sources

Nehemiah 5:5: "Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage."
Nehemiah 5:3: "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine."
Nehemiah 5:7: "I... contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, You exact usury, everyone from his brother."