Nehemiah 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the tears of the oppressed, which Solomon thought deeply about (Ecclesiastes 4:1). We should look at them as they are laid before Nehemiah, whose duty as governor was to defend the poor and needy and rescue them from the hand of wicked oppressors (Psalm 82:4). Hard times and hard hearts made the poor miserable.

The times they lived in were hard. There was a famine of grain (Nehemiah 5:3), likely because God had withheld rain to correct their neglect of his house (Haggai 1:9-11) and their failure to pay what they owed for worship (Malachi 3:9-10). Foolish, sinful people often bring God’s judgments on themselves, then complain about them. When food is scarce and expensive, the poor feel the pain first. We should thank God for the mercy of fullness of bread, and also ask him to save us from its sin, the sin of proud ease and excess (Ezekiel 16:49).

What made the shortage worse was that their sons and daughters were many (Nehemiah 5:2). The families in greatest need were the largest. They had many mouths to feed, but no food to put on the table. Some people have wealth but no children to inherit it. Others have children but no wealth to leave them. Those who have both should be thankful. Those who have neither can more easily learn contentment.

Those with large families and little money must learn to live by faith in God’s care and promise. Those with small families and plenty must use their extra to help others in need. But that was not all. Grain was dear, and taxes were high. The king’s tribute still had to be paid (Nehemiah 5:4). This was one more sign that they were still under bondage. It may have been a head tax, and if so, their many children made it even heavier. The more they had to support, the more they had to pay.

They had no money of their own to buy food and pay taxes, so they were forced to borrow. Their families had come out of Babylon with little. They had already spent a great deal building houses, and before they could recover, these new burdens fell on them. The hardship of poor householders, who struggle to earn an honest living and sometimes lack what their families need, deserves the compassionate attention of those who can help, whether by wealth or by authority.

The people they dealt with were hard too. They needed money, but they had to borrow it. Those who lent to them took advantage of their need and treated them harshly. They charged interest at twelve percent, one-hundredth each month (Nehemiah 5:11). If people borrow large sums for trade, to grow their business, or to buy land, there is no reason the lender should not share in the profit. If they borrow to waste money on sin or to fix the harm they caused by waste, they should pay for their folly. But if the poor borrow to feed their families, and we are able to help them, then we should either lend freely what they need or, if repayment is unlikely, give freely toward their need.

They also forced the poor to mortgage their lands and houses to secure the loans (Nehemiah 5:3). More than that, they took the income from those lands as interest (Nehemiah 5:5, compare Nehemiah 5:11), slowly trying to gain control of everything they owned. Even that was not the worst. They also took their children as bond-servants, to be enslaved or sold whenever they wished (Nehemiah 5:5). This wounded the people most deeply. Their children were as dear to them as the children of these rich men were to them. Their children shared the same human nature and deserved the same dignity and liberty (Malachi 2:10; Job 31:15). They were also members of the same holy nation, free-born Israelites, marked with the covenant sign of circumcision. Yet their children must become slaves, and they had no power to redeem them.

So they brought their complaint to Nehemiah, not only because he was a great man who could help them, but because he was a good man who would. Where should injured poor people go for help except to those set over them for protection? Where else but to the court, and to the mercy that should live in the royal heart and in those appointed to bring relief from the harsh edge of the law?

Let us leave Nehemiah hearing their complaint and checking whether it was true, since the cries of the poor are not always fully fair. For our part, let us look on the oppressed with kind compassion and mourn the hardships so many carry in this world. Let us put ourselves in their place and remember them in prayer and practical help, as people who are burdened with burdens. Let us also feel righteous anger against oppressors and hate the pride and cruelty of those who live by the tears and blood of people under their power. Those who show no mercy should expect judgment without mercy.

It made the sin of these oppressing Jews even worse that they had so recently been delivered from the house of bondage. Gratitude should have moved them to undo heavy burdens and set others free (Isaiah 58:6).