Nehemiah 5: 1 – 19
Usury
5 And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. 2 For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore, let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” 3 There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.” 4 There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. 5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.” 6 And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, “Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.” So, I called a great assembly against them. 8 And I said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?” Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. 9 Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 10 I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! 11 Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.” 12 So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.” Then I called the priests and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. 13 Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise. 14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor’s provisions. 15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16 Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work. 17 And at my table were one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. 18 Now that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also, fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this I did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people. 19 Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Usury is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. Originally, usury meant interest of any kind. A loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors. Someone who practices usury can be called a usurer, but a more common term in contemporary English is loan shark.
The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning, taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense where interest rates may be regulated by law. Historically, some cultures have regarded charging any interest in loans as sinful.
The Hebrew Bible regulates interest taking. Interest can be charged to strangers but not between Hebrews.
Deuteronomy 23:19, “19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury (interest) to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury”
Deuteronomy 23:20, “20 Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
Israelites were forbidden to charge interest on loans made to other Israelites but allowed to charge interest on transactions with non-Israelites, as the latter were often amongst the Israelites for conducting business anyway; but in general, it was seen as advantageous to avoid getting into debt at all, to avoid being bound to someone else. Debt was to be avoided and not used to finance consumption, but only taken on when in need; however, the laws against usury were among many laws which the prophets condemn the people for breaking.
The Torah treats lending as philanthropy in a poor community whose aim was collective survival, but which is not obliged to be charitable towards outsiders.
A great deal of Jewish legal scholarship in the Dark and the Middle Ages was devoted to making business dealings fair, honest and efficient.
Usury (in the original sense of any interest) was at times denounced by a number of religious leaders and philosophers in the ancient world, including Moses, Plato, Aristotle, Gautama Buddha, Cicero, Seneca, Aquinas, Muhammad, Philo and Cato who expressed this oppressive action by stating, ‘And what do you think of usury?"—"What do you think of murder?’
As the Jews were ostracized from most professions by local rulers, the Western churches and the guilds, they were pushed into marginal occupations considered socially inferior, such as tax and rent collecting and moneylending. Natural tensions between creditors and debtors were added to social, political, religious, and economic strains.
Financial oppression of Jews tended to occur in areas where they were most disliked, and if Jews reacted by concentrating on moneylending to non-Jews, the unpopularity—and so, of course, the pressure—would increase. Thus, the Jews became an element in a vicious circle. The Christians, on the basis of the Biblical rulings, condemned interest-taking absolutely, and from 1179 those who practiced it were excommunicated. Catholic autocrats frequently imposed the harshest financial burdens on the Jews. The Jews reacted by engaging in the one business where Christian laws discriminated in their favor and became identified with the hated trade of moneylending.
Today we are going to see this abomination in action as the Jews including Nehemiah were violating God’s rules in oppressing their fellow Israelites.
Nehemiah is now revealed, not only as a great leader, but as a man of compassion. Like many rich men he had probably not considered the effect on the poorer Jews of the concentration of their men as laborer’s on the building of the walls, no doubt without payment. For many poor families, struggling to survive even before this happened, losing their adult males for nearly two months was turning out to be a catastrophe. There would be three types of people involved:
1). The landless Jews who depended on a daily wage for the existence of themselves and their families at a very low level, eking out a living from day to day. In consequence they were having to sell their children into debt slavery or worse, in order even to obtain food.
2) Jews with only a tiny amount of land struggling at subsistence level when harvests were bad and having in bad years to borrow in order to buy next year’s grain, because they had had to consume all that had grown. Failing crops (‘because of the drought’ - verse 3), and the lack of the adult males to either wring from the fields what could be obtained, or work for others in order to be able to earn food, resulted in some having to mortgage their lands so that they could afford to buy grain, both to eat and to be sown in the coming year in order to continue to survive. Another poor harvest would also result in debt-slavery for their children.
3). Jews with a larger amount of land who were being caught out by the Persian taxes, who, because of the lack of productivity of their fields, were falling into debt. For this group there was the problem that shortage of harvest had meant that they had to borrow money to pay their taxes. This could bring them under a continual debt burden and eventually they also could be in danger of losing their land if harvests continued to be bad. Their plight was the least of the three, but it was serious non-the-less.
This was another side to the problems described in chapter 4. There it was problems without. Here it is problems within. For these people morale, which was already low, had become even lower.
With great vigor Nehemiah deals with the problem. He calls on the wealthier Jews to treat their fellow-Jews as brothers, remembering that they are all YHWH’s servants (Leviticus 25.53), and providing for their needs rather than exacting from them as much as they could. And he himself supplies the example.
5 And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren.
The taking of the adult males to work on the walls left many families, which were already struggling to survive, in a parlous situation. (A similar situation would arise during warfare). They would have to depend on the labors of their wives and children. This would explain why the wives are particularly mentioned as being noisy. They were bearing the brunt of the situation. Thus the families were complaining about the harshness of their fellow-Jews who were taking advantage of the situation to increase their own wealth, rather than obeying the Law which said, ‘you shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor in your land’ (Deuteronomy 15.11).
2 For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore, let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”
The first complaint is on behalf of those who were starving because they could not afford to buy food. Their breadwinners, who would normally be acting as day-laborer’s for wages, were not available, and yet they still had to support large families. Losing them for even a period of less than two months was disastrous. They needed grain simply so that they could eat it and survive. There is no mention of them possessing land. We must therefore assume that they were landless.
3 There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”
The second group did own a small amount of land. But they were subsistence farmers, struggling to produce enough to eat. However, the harvest had been poor, and their adult males had neither been presenting to help with the meager harvest, nor to act as part-time laborer’s, earning wages to supplement the little that they produced. Thus, in order that they might obtain food to eat, and grain which would have to be sown to produce the following year’s harvest, they had mortgaged their tiny fields and vineyards. Repayments were becoming due and in order to pay them they would have to sell some of their children into debt-slavery (verse 5), or lose their land, which would then put them in the position of the first people.
4 There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards.
The slightly larger fields and vineyards of the third group had also not been productive because of the drought, and the position had been made worse because their adult males were not there to help but were taken up with building the walls. Thus, they had had to borrow money to pay the king’s tribute, based on land ownership, thereby mortgaging their future. These loans would have to be paid back, seemingly with interest (which was forbidden - Exodus 22.25; Leviticus 25.36-37; Deuteronomy 23.19-20), and this would have to be paid out of future produce. Financially things were difficult.
5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”
All three groups were concerned about the possibility of eventually having to sell their children into debt slavery, whereby their children would become unpaid servants, with payment for their services being given up front as the ‘purchase price’ of the young virtual slave. This slavery would last for seven years (Exodus 21.2-11; Deuteronomy 15.12-18). And this was being done to them, not by foreigners, but by their fellow-Jews who were of the same stock as they were. Indeed, some of their daughters had already been brought into such bondage (girls would be sold first as they were not so useful in the fields). Nor could their parents do anything about it as their fields and vineyards were under the control of others, either through sale or mortgage, with the result that there was no other way of obtaining money.
When Nehemiah heard their pleas, he was angry, both with himself and with others. He immediately recognized that he and other comparatively wealthy Jews had, probably mainly inadvertently, but some out of sheer greed, been overlooking the needs of the poor. Now he called on them to put this right. The fact that the wealthy responded so readily does suggest that most of their behavior was unthinking. Nehemiah calls partly on the teaching of the Law about usury (claiming back extra on top of basic loans, something forbidden in Exodus 22.25; Leviticus 25.36-37; Deuteronomy 23.19-20) and partly on the contradictory nature of their behavior. This latter point was because they had generously paid to redeem their brothers from slavery while in Babylonia, and were doing the same in Judah, but were now themselves enslaving those same brothers, and others like them.
It is true that the Law did require that at the end of every seventh year all debt should be ‘released’ (Deuteronomy 15.1), and that all Hebrew slaves should also be released (Exodus 21.2-11; Deuteronomy 15.12-18), but we do not know how far these requirements were being fulfilled. And it did not solve the current situation. Thus, Nehemiah went a step further. He called on the wealthy, in view of the circumstances, to make that release immediately. And it was to their credit that they were willing, even though it might be that many were willing simply in order not to lose face before their fellows.
6 And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.
The sad tales that came to him made Nehemiah angry, both with himself and with others. How could they have overlooked the needs of the families of those who had worked so willingly on the walls, presumably without pay? And how could they have overlooked a genuine situation of such extreme poverty? It is always the problem of the comparatively well off that they do not appreciate the position of those at the lowest levels of poverty. They just assume that they will get by, as they do themselves.
7 After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, “Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.” So, I called a great assembly against them.
Nehemiah first of all examined his own conscience, (‘he consulted with himself’) for he recognized that he had been equally guilty of ignoring the situation, by lending money to the poor on interest. And then he argued with the wealthy among the people, the aristocrats and rulers, and pointed out that they were doing the same. They were ‘exacting usury from their brothers’, contrary to the Law. And he organized ‘a great gathering’ where the matter could be considered. He knew that men were more disposed to charity if it was required of them in public.
8 And I said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?” Then they were silenced and found nothing to say.
He then called on them to consider the contradictory nature of their behavior. While in Babylonia they had paid good money to redeem from slavery fellow-Jews who had been enslaved by foreigners, so that they could return with them to the land, and they had also paid local foreigners a redemption price for Jewish slaves in the land, and yet they were now themselves in the contradictory position of enslaving those same brothers, and others like them, selling them to themselves. Did they consider that this was not pleasing to God?
This idea of the deliverance of Jewish slaves out of the hands of foreigners was prescribed in the Law, although the principle there was applied to those ‘in the land’ where the idea of the year of Yubile applied, and the idea was that those ransomed would then serve off their debt as hired servants, not as slaves (Leviticus 25.47-55). It was, however, a practice that had been extended to include the ransom by generous Jews of any Jews in foreign hands.
Nehemiah was heard out in silence. All felt guilty. They recognized their own inconsistency, so much so that not one spoke up in his own defense. They acknowledged that they had no excuse for what they had been doing.
9 Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?
He stressed that what he and they were doing was not good. Should they not rather be fearing God, recognising that by their behavior they were bringing the reproach of the nation’s round about, ‘their enemies’ previously mentioned (4.7), on themselves and on their God? They were proclaiming that their God was different from the gods of the nations, even from the YHWH of the people who worship other gods also, and yet they were demonstrating by their behavior that it made no difference to the way that they lived, thus giving the impression that their God was in fact no different after all.
10 I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury!
To his credit Nehemiah did not excuse himself. He and his retinue (his ‘servants’, those who were helping him to run the country), and even his own relatives (his ‘brothers’) were equally guilty of such behavior, lending money and grain to obtain a return on them. They were following Persian and Babylonian ways. As they had, however, only been in Judah a short time, they could not actually have caused much hardship as the loans must have been very recent. But he admits that the intention had been there. By this means he took away the offence that otherwise his words may have caused. He was not being ‘holier than you’. It should be noted that this practice was not forbidden in itself, only when it was with regard to fellow-Jews (Deuteronomy 23.20). Thus, he calls on them to cease the practice, as he intended to do. It was to be a permanent arrangement for the future, not a temporary measure.
It should be noted that this does not condemn the modern commercial practice of lending money on reasonable interest. But it does suggest that personal loans to fellow-Christians and relatives, and to those in real poverty, to meet personal need, while being willingly given, should not be offered on the basis of obtaining a return.
11 Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”
Nehemiah now calls on them, therefore, to restore to those from whom they had exacted them, their fields, vineyards, olive yards and houses, together with any liability for interest and return of capital. It was to be a kind of instantaneous year of release and year of Jubilee, with all debts cancelled, and all property restored, in order to start the new nation off on the right basis now that Judah was an entity in itself (albeit in the Persian empire).
Some see ‘the hundredth part’ as possibly the interest for one moon period, indicating an interest of 12%. If so, this had seemingly been generally agreed previously, and was in fact in terms of those days, very generous. We know that during the Persian period nearer to 20% was usually exacted by money lenders, and often much higher. Nevertheless, Nehemiah called for it to be cancelled. In other words that part of the loans which had not yet been repaid were to be looked on as gifts, and the interest being exacted had to be cancelled.
12 So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.” Then I called the priests and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.
To the credit of the wealthy Jews their response was positive. They would restore all property, cancel all debts, and cease exacting interest, in accordance with Nehemiah’s suggestion. Any who had reservations on the matter, as there would almost inevitably have been, were seemingly ashamed to go against the generosity of the majority. We can understand how this would have given the workers on the walls a new impetus, and how it would have raised Nehemiah’s authority among the poor (the majority). It will be noted that nothing is said about the provision of food for the poorest (verse 2) but that was not part of the long-term deal which was being recorded here. Provision was no doubt made for that. It could hardly have been overlooked.
Nehemiah then called on them to confirm what they had promised on oath before the priests. This made the whole thing legally binding. From then on, they could not go back on it. This was not a sign that he did not trust them, but a making of the whole arrangement legal, removing any qualms that anyone might have, and any danger of anyone later changing their mind. It made the arrangement firm and sure. Were anything to arise in the future these priests and their fellows would also be the judges.
13 Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.
Nehemiah then made a symbolic act by ‘shaking out his lap’ (we would say ‘turned out his pockets’) declaring ‘so may God shake out from their house and from their work any who does not fulfil his promise’. Personal items were carried in a fold of the cloak, held in by a belt. It was these that he shook out as a prophetic gesture. Such an overt act was sealing whatever had been spoken, and as guaranteeing the carrying out by God of any penalty.
That those gathered did not see it as a rebuke, but as a sealing of the position comes out in their response. All agreed, and all said ‘Amen’ and praised YHWH. They clearly saw it as a new beginning and rejoiced in a new unity. Dissension among them had been removed. And finally we are assured that all the people did as they had promised. All cooperated in carrying out Nehemiah’s proposals.
It is probable that having fulfilled his original intention of restoring the walls of Jerusalem Nehemiah returned to the king accompanied by his escort, and this may well have resulted in his preparing a report which makes up a large part of the first section of the book of Nehemiah. But it appears that the king then appointed him as Governor over Judah, a position which he held for twelve years. This may well have been because there had been unrest in Egypt under Inaros, followed by a rebellion by Megabyzus, the then governor of Syria (in 449 BC), with the consequence that the king wanted to ensure Judah’s loyal support in such a sensitive area at such a crucial time, especially now that Jerusalem had been fortified. It could well be that he wanted to ensure that Jerusalem was in safe hands, providing a steadying influence in the area.
Nehemiah now goes on to describe how he himself during that twelve years sought not to be a financial burden on the Jewish people. He was clearly, as we would expect of a person in his high position, a very wealthy man, and he was prepared to use that wealth in the service of God by ensuring the financial stability of His people. He did not call on the normal perquisites available to a Persian governor. And in true fashion he calls on God to witness that fact for his good.
14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor’s provisions.
We are not told whether Nehemiah was appointed as governor from the start. The suggestion that he had appointed a time to the king for his return (2.6) would decide against the idea. It may well be that after the completion of the building of the walls he returned to Persia, only to discover that the king wanted him to return as governor because of the political situation, a post which he then held for twelve years. And he points out here that over that whole period of twelve years he and his family had not ‘eaten the bread of the governor’, that is, had not called on the people of Judah to provide him and his house with food in the way that a governor would usually expect.
15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.
This contrasted with former governors who ruled before him, who were a charge on the people and took from them food and drink as well as forty shekels of silver, presumably yearly. Given that their food and drink was also supplied to them forty shekels of silver was a goodly sum.
These governors took advantage of their position, so that even their ministers and advisers (‘their servants’) were also a charge on the people. Nehemiah, however, refrained from all this because he was ‘God-fearing’. He is a good example of the Old Testament equivalent of a man who loves God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself.
16 Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.
His attitude was demonstrated by the fact the he continued to work on the wall until it was completed, as did his ‘servants’. Nor did he acquire any land by any means whatsoever. He was not out to enrich himself.
17 And at my table were one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us.
And all this was in accordance with recognized Persian custom, he continually entertained numerous guests at his table. Thus he constantly welcomed at his table 150 prominent Jewish officials, including their rulers, as well as important officials from nations round about, thus maintaining the prestige of the empire.
18 Now that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also, fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this I did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people.
He makes clear what this involved. Every day one ox and six choice sheep were slain and prepared for the banquet, together with numerous birds. And every ten days the wine cellar was restocked. Yet despite these charges on his purse he made no demands on the people by claiming ‘the food of the governor’, because he recognized the financial burdens that they were carrying. Seemingly he met the whole out of his own family estates. He was in complete contrast with the general run of rulers who used their offices to obtain whatever they could get.
19 Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
And he did it consciously out of love for God. Nehemiah called on Him to remember for good all that he had done for God’s people. This was the only reward that he sought, to please God and be approved by Him. Note that 13.22 makes clear that he did not thereby think that he was earning God’s favor. He was fully aware that he was dependent on His mercy.
