CHAPTER 5

¹And the people’s outcry was great against their Jewish brothers. ²And some were saying, “Our sons and our daughters are many, and we would take grain and eat and stay alive.” ³And some were saying, “Our fields and our vineyards and our homes we are pawning that we may take grain during the famine.” ⁴And some were saying, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax against our fields and our vineyards. ⁵And now, our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, and our sons are like their sons, and, look, we are consigning our sons and our daughters to slavery, and some of our daughters have already been consigned, with us powerless, and our fields and our vineyards to others.” ⁶And I was very incensed when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷And I reflected, and I rebuked the nobles and the officers and said to them, “Are you dunning your brothers for debts?” And I set against them a great crowd. ⁸And I said to them, “We have bought back our Jewish brothers sold to the nations as much as we could, and you on your part sell your brothers, and they are sold to us?” And they fell silent and found no words. ⁹And I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of the nations, our enemies? ¹⁰And I, too, my brothers and my lads hold claims against them of money and grain. Let us abandon, pray, this claim of debt. ¹¹Give them back today, pray, their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and the claim of money and of grain, wine, and oil for which you are dunning them.” ¹²And they said, “We will give it back, and we will ask nothing of them. So will we do this thing.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do this thing. ¹³I also shook out what was in my lap and said, “Thus shall God shake out from his house and from his possessions every man who does not fulfill this word, and thus shall he be shaken out and be empty.” And all the assembly said “Amen.” And they praised the LORD, and the people did according to this word. ¹⁴Also, from the day he charged me to be their satrap in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, I and my brothers did not eat the satrap’s bread. ¹⁵But the first satraps who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for bread and wine forty shekels of silver. Their lads, too, lorded it over the people. But I did not do this because of the fear of God. ¹⁶And also I supported the task of this wall, and I bought no field, and all my lads were gathered there for the task. ¹⁷And the Jews and the satraps, a hundred fifty men who had come to us from the nations that were all around us, were at my table. ¹⁸And this is what was prepared for me for a single day—one ox, six choice sheep and fowl were prepared for me, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. But for all this, I did not request the satrap’s bread, for the service was heavy upon the people. ¹⁹Recall, O my God, to my credit, all that I have done for this people.