The Complaints of the Poor Israelites
Nehemiah 5: 1-13
The complaints of the poor Israelites DIG: What is the “great outcry” all about? What needs are going unmet? What do you suppose brought on the economic crisis? What three groups are most affected? How does this affect their common desire to finish the project? How does Nehemiah respond to his brothers’ cries for economic justice? What does that tell you about him? Why does he get so angry at the nobles and officials (5:7ff; also see Leviticus 25:39-42; Ezeki’el 22:12-13)? How does Nehemiah seek to make sure the nobles and officials make their ways right (5:9-10, 12b)? In what ways does Nehemiah act wisely? Generously?
REFLECT: How do you react when you hear about an injustice done to an innocent person? If you could act, do you respond? Why? Why not? In your place of worship this past year, what financial crisis, party politics, or other morale problems may have hindered your service to God and others? In what ways do you react like, or unlike, Nehemiah? In money matters, do you deal with a believer differently than with a non-believer? If so, why is that?
445 BC During the ministry of Nehemiah (to see link click Bt – The Third Return).
Compiled by: The Chronicler from the Ezra and Nehemiah Memoirs
(see Ac – Ezra-Nehemiah From a Jewish Perspective: The Nehemiah Memoirs).
Building the wall and external opposition put economic strain on the whole community. The culmination of these problems may have occurred shortly before the wall was finished in the month of Elul (August-September). This would have been near the end of the harvest, and the creditors would have required payment of capital and interest on loans. According to Nehemiah 4:22, Nehemiah had asked the workers to stay in Yerushalayim and not return to their villages. In short, the economic situation was more critical because the people dedicated so much labor to the wall. And in the midst of the building, the nobles and officials began to oppress the common people in a variety of ways.246
Then there was a great outcry from the poor people (Exodus 3:9) and their wives to their fellow Jews (Nehemiah 5:1). Husbands and wives worked together and both had the right to be heard. The extra manpower needed on the wall may have meant that more women had to help in the harvest.
There were three groups facing financial crisis. The first group had spent all their time and energy rebuilding the wall and had no time left to work for their own food. These people may have been among the poorest – those who owned no property and normally would have earned a living by harvesting the fields of others. No work, no money. There were those who said: We and our sons and our daughters are numerous. We must take grain, so we may eat and live (Nehemiah 5:2). It was as if they were saying, “Since we have not been able to till our fields, we are compelled to buy corn in the market and prices have soared to a high level.”
The second group consisted of property owners who had been forced to take out loans in order to pay their bills. There were others who said: We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses in order to obtain grain during the famine (Nehemiah 5:3). To make matters worse, there had been a famine, and these people were having trouble feeding their families. In sheer desperation, people would resort to this method for the purpose of raising money, since their attachment to family property was very strong.
The third group had been hit hard with Persian taxes both on property and produce. This group was the hardest hit, for they had not only mortgaged their lands, but had also sold their children into slavery. Still others were saying: We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. And now, though we share the same flesh as our brothers, and our children are just like their children, still we subject our sons and our daughters to slavery (Exodus 21:7ff). Some of our daughters have already been enslaved but our hands are tied since our fields and vineyards belong to creditors on default of payment (Nehemiah 5:4-5).
People who could not pay their debts might sell themselves or their children into slavery. God’s Word contains specific stipulations concerning this practice – stipulations those wealthy Jews were ignoring. First, ADONAI forbid His people to charge interest to one another on loans (Exodus 22:25). Second, the debtor was to be treated with dignity and respect as a fellow member of God’s chosen people (Leviticus 25:39-40). Third, such debts might include indentured service, but it did not include one’s personal property. YHVH had given the Promised Land to all His people, and they were not permitted to buy or sell that land, even to one another (Numbers 36:7-9).247
I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words (Nehemiah 5:6). Nehemiah demonstrated the difference between sinful anger and righteous indignation. Yeshua was full of righteous indignation when He turned over the tables of the money changers (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Bs – Jesus’ First Cleansing of the Temple at the Passover). And Nehemiah’s zealous anger was ignited by the fact that the Jews were not obeying God’s Word. He didn’t turn over any tables, but he did address the underlying sinful behavior that was causing the problem.
I pondered them in my heart and sought the LORD’s wisdom in how to handle the situation. Then I opposed the nobles and the officials strongly, saying to them, “Usury (lending money at an exceedingly high rate)! Each of you is putting his brother in debt” (Nehemiah 5:7)! Their commitment to building the wall had been virtually nonexistent, and their loyalty to the Jew’s enemies had added to their opportunistic attitudes, which placed them close to the status of Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem (see Cc – Samaritan Opposition to the Building of the Walls of Jerusalem). They had become the enemy within.
Nehemiah solved this conflict between social class on the basis of principles taught in the Torah, especially the sense of community equality and the importance of the Covenant, which envisages a people . . . not an individual. Individuals, while important, were expected to act for the benefit of the group. Deuteronomy refers to all Israelites as brothers, regardless of social status or tribal divisions. This includes kings and priests (Deuteronomy 1:16, 3:12-20, 10:9, 15:3-11, 17:15, 18:2). This, together with the tendency to speak of Isra’el as a single whole, had a leveling effect on the whole community. Therefore, relations between Jews should never be treated purely as business transactions, but rather as spiritual service that is pleasing to God and blessed by Him.248
In the ninth example of leadership in the life of Nehemiah, good leaders do not stop with rebuke, but take steps to correct the problem (see Bt – The Third Return). So, I convened a great assembly to deal with them. I said to them, “As much as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the nations. Once again, Nehemiah set an example by his own behavior. He first denounced the evil conduct of selling a brother or sister by means of usury. Nehemiah then contrasted this with his own action of redeeming (with his own money) some of the Jewish exiles who through debt had lost their freedom in Babylon. Now you also are selling your brothers and sisters so that they will be sold back to us?” Then they became silent and could not find anything to say (Nehemiah 5:8). Nehemiah’s rebuke could not be denied because it was based on God’s Word and his own personal example. The fact that he had obeyed ADONAI at cost to himself in a similar matter left no room for his opponents to argue about his accusations.
Nehemiah’s statement: The thing that you are doing is not good! It is an example of how a leader can assume the role of a moral teacher. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God, in order to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies (Nehemiah 5:9)? Nehemiah confronted them with the truth, not what they wanted to hear. The problem was that they were damaging their ultimate mission to the Gentiles: And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3b). To walk in the fear of God is a concept taken from the wisdom literature of the TaNaKh and means to live in awe of and devotion to God and with kindness and integrity toward mankind (Deuteronomy 10:12, Second Chronicles 6:31; Leviticus 25:36; Nehemiah 7:2). Such a lifestyle would be a witness to the Gentiles and fulfill the election of Isra’el (Isaiah 42:6-9).
Even I, my brothers, and my servants are lending those in need money and grain without the expectation of making a profit. Let this usury stop, now! If a person was destitute, those who had the means were to give what they had bought as a free gift. If the debtor was able to repay the money, no interest was to be charged. Such generosity was a mark of true godliness (Psalm 15:1-5). Now, return to them this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, as well as the hundredth that you have extracted from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil (Nehemiah 5:10-11). Once they had restored what they had taken, Nehemiah considered the matter to be closed. He called the people to obey God’s commandments, but he didn’t go beyond that to punish those who had disobeyed.249
The nobles and the officials accepted Nehemiah’s challenge and promised to pay back the interest and deposit they had taken. They said: We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do just as you say (Nehemiah 5:12a). Here Nehemiah’s humility and sense of social responsibility was crucial in solving long-term social-economic problems that had surfaced under the additional stress of building the wall. They were willing to work together, even at great personal cost.
Nehemiah knew that promises made under emotional pressure were not always kept. He was not prepared to trust the moneylenders further than he could throw them. Nehemiah called the priests and had the nobles and officials take an oath. Then I summoned the cohanim, the administrators of oaths (Numbers 5:19), and I made them swear to do according to this promise (Nehemiah 5:12b). Also I shook out my garment. Observing a practice that would have been well known to the people – hiding valuable objects in the folds of their long, flowing garments kept secure by a belt – Nehemiah shook his garment, but nothing came out, showing that he himself had given away all that he had. This was a symbolic announcement that those who went back on their word would be cursed. That Ha’Shem would take away their houses and possessions. In this way may God shake out from His house and from His property every one that does not keep this promise. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!
The unselfish leadership and courageous action of Nehemiah bore fruit: And all the assembly replied, Amen! in agreement, and they praised ADONAI. So the people did according to this promise (Nehemiah 5:13). Not only did the offenders do as they had promised, but they also restored unity and praised the LORD. God was in this!
Many people assume that the TaNaKh describes ADONAI as being wrathful and vengeful. However, the most common word used in the TaNaKh to describe YHVH is compassionate. God cares about people, and He especially cares about the poor and the needy who belong to Him. You must open your hand to your poor and needy brother in your land (Deuteronomy 15:11b). That phrase is used twenty-seven times in the TaNaKh. In this case, the poor and the needy who were being exploited were the ones who had wholeheartedly thrown themselves into the work of rebuilding the walls and had stood firm in spite of opposition.
Those people had demonstrated a strong commitment to God’s work, and one would have expected their fellow Jews to be grateful. Unfortunately, they were not rewarded with gratitude but were exploited. The nobles and officials who were taking advantage of the poor and the needy assumed that YHVH would look the other way. They were powerful and influential men with money and property, who had the means to take advantage of the situation and did not hesitate to do so. But they had forgotten that because ADONAI is compassionate, He hears the cry of the oppressed (Exodus 22:24-26).
The LORD calls upon His people to be generous with the poor and the needy and give freely with no expectation of repayment. Solomon wrote: He who is kind to the poor is lending to ADONAI; and he will repay him for his good deed (Proverbs 19:17). Yeshua gave us practical instruction on how to do this: Give to everyone who asks you; and whoever takes something of yours, make no demands upon him. Do to others as you would have them do to you . . . but love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great and you will be the children of Elyon, for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked ones (Luke 6:30-31 and 35-36). ADONAI is kind, and His character is revealed by the fact that before salvation, the believer, while ungrateful and wicked, has been the recipient of His mercy.250
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