Nehemiah Confronts Internal Injustice and Models Fear-of-God Leadership

Neh 5:7 “And my heart took counsel upon it (ימּלך according to the Chaldee use of מלך, Dan 4:24), and I contended with the nobles and rulers, and said to them, Ye exact usury every one of his brother. ” ב נשׁא means to lend to any one, and משּׁא, also משּׁאה, Deu 24:10; Pro 22:26, and mashe', is the thing lent, the loan, what one borrows from or lends to another.

Consequently משּׁא נשׁא is to lend some one a loan; comp. Deu 24:10. This does not seem to suit this verse. For Nehemiah cannot reproach the nobles for lending loans, when he and his servants had, according to Neh 5:10, done so likewise. Hence the injustice of the transaction which he rebukes must be expressed in the emphatic precedence given to משּׁא. Bertheau accordingly regards משּׁא not as the accusative of the object, but as an independent secondary accusative in the sense of: for the sake of demanding a pledge, ye lend.

But this rendering can be neither grammatically nor lexically justified. In the first respect it is opposed by משּׁאה השּׁא, Deu 24:10, which shows that משּׁא in conjunction with נשׁא is the accusative of the object; in the other, by the constant use of משּׁא in all passages in which it occurs to express a loan, not a demand for a pledge. From Exo 22:24, where it is said, “If thou lend money (תּלוה) to the poor, thou shalt not be to him כּנשׁה, shalt not lay upon him usury,” it is evident that נשׁה is one who lends money on usury, or carries on the business of a money-lender.

This evil secondary meaning of the word is here strongly marked by the emphatic praeposition of משּׁא; hence Nehemiah is speaking of those who practise usury. “And I appointed a great assembly on their account,” to put a stop to the usury and injustice by a public discussion of the matter. עליהם, not against them (the usurers), but on their account.

Neh 5:8 In this assembly he reproached them with the injustice of their behaviour. “We” (said he) “have, after our ability, redeemed our brethren the Jews which were sold unto the heathen; yet ye would sell your brethren, and they are to be sold to us. ” We (i. e. , Nehemiah and the Jews living in exile, who were like-minded with him) have bought, in contrast to ye sell.

They had redeemed their Jewish brethren who were sold to the heathen. בנוּ כּדי for בנוּ אשׁר כּדי, i. e. , not according to the full number of those who were among us, meaning as often as a sale of this kind occurred (Bertheau); for דּי does not mean completeness, multitude, but only sufficiency, supply, adequacy of means (Lev 25:26); hence בנוּ כּדי is: according to the means that we had: secundum sufficientiam vel facultatem, quae in nobis est (Ramb.)

, or secundum possibilitatem nostram (Vulg.) The contrast is still more strongly expressed by the placing of גּם before אתּם, so that וגם acquires the meaning of nevertheless (Ewald, §354, a ). The sale of their brethren for bond-servants was forbidden by the law, Lev 25:42. The usurers had nothing to answer to this reproach. “They held their peace, and found no word,” sc.

in justification of their proceedings.

Neh 5:9 Nehemiah, moreover, continued (ויאמר, the Chethiv, is evidently a clerical error for ואמר, for the Niphal ויּאמר does not suit): “The thing ye do is not good: ought ye not (= ye surely ought) to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?” i.e., we ought not, by harsh and unloving conduct towards our brethren, to give our enemies occasion to calumniate us.

Neh 5:10-12 “I, likewise my brethren and my servants (comp. Neh 4:17), have lent them money and corn; let us, I pray, remit (not ask back) this loan! ” The participle נשׁים says: we are those who have lent. Herewith he connects the invitation, Neh 5:11 : “Restore unto them, I pray you, even this day (כּהיּום, about this day, i. e. , even to-day, 1Sa 9:13), their fields, their vineyards, their olive gardens, and their houses, and the hundredth of the money, and of the corn, wine, and oil which you have lent them.

” Nehemiah requires, 1 st , that those who held the lands of their poorer brethren in pledge should restore them their property without delay: 2 nd , that they should remit to their debtors all interest owing on money, corn, etc. that had been lent; not, as the words have been frequently understood, that they should give back to their debtors such interest as they had already received.

That the words in Neh 5:11 bear the former, and not the latter signification, is obvious from the reply, Neh 5:12, of those addressed: “We will restore, sc. their lands, etc. , and will not querie of them, sc. the hundredth; so will we do as thou sayest. ” Hence we must not translate בּהם נשׁים אתּם אשׁר, “which you had taken from them as interest” (de Wette), - a translation which, moreover, cannot be justified by the usage of the language, for ב נשׁה does not mean to take interest from another, to lend to another on interest.

The אשׁר relates not to וּמאת, but to והיּצהר ... הדּגן; and השׁיב, to restore, to make good, is used of both the transactions in question, meaning in the first clause the restoration of the lands retained as pledges, and in the second, the remission (the non-requirement) of the hundredth. The hundredth taken as interest is probably, like the centesima of the Romans, to be understood of a monthly payment.

One per cent. per month was a very heavy interest, and one which, in the case of the poor, might be exorbitant. The law, moreover, forbade the taking of any usury from their brethren, their poor fellow-countrymen, Exo 22:25 and Lev 25:36. When the creditors had given the consent required, Nehemiah called the priests, and made them (the creditors) swear to do according to this promise, i.

e. , conscientiously to adhere to their agreement. Nehemiah obtained the attendance of the priests, partly for the purpose of giving solemnity to the oath now taken, and partly to give to the declaration made in the presence of the priests legal validity for judicial decisions.

Neh 5:10-12 “I, likewise my brethren and my servants (comp. Neh 4:17), have lent them money and corn; let us, I pray, remit (not ask back) this loan! ” The participle נשׁים says: we are those who have lent. Herewith he connects the invitation, Neh 5:11 : “Restore unto them, I pray you, even this day (כּהיּום, about this day, i. e. , even to-day, 1Sa 9:13), their fields, their vineyards, their olive gardens, and their houses, and the hundredth of the money, and of the corn, wine, and oil which you have lent them.

” Nehemiah requires, 1 st , that those who held the lands of their poorer brethren in pledge should restore them their property without delay: 2 nd , that they should remit to their debtors all interest owing on money, corn, etc. that had been lent; not, as the words have been frequently understood, that they should give back to their debtors such interest as they had already received.

That the words in Neh 5:11 bear the former, and not the latter signification, is obvious from the reply, Neh 5:12, of those addressed: “We will restore, sc. their lands, etc. , and will not querie of them, sc. the hundredth; so will we do as thou sayest. ” Hence we must not translate בּהם נשׁים אתּם אשׁר, “which you had taken from them as interest” (de Wette), - a translation which, moreover, cannot be justified by the usage of the language, for ב נשׁה does not mean to take interest from another, to lend to another on interest.

The אשׁר relates not to וּמאת, but to והיּצהר ... הדּגן; and השׁיב, to restore, to make good, is used of both the transactions in question, meaning in the first clause the restoration of the lands retained as pledges, and in the second, the remission (the non-requirement) of the hundredth. The hundredth taken as interest is probably, like the centesima of the Romans, to be understood of a monthly payment.

One per cent. per month was a very heavy interest, and one which, in the case of the poor, might be exorbitant. The law, moreover, forbade the taking of any usury from their brethren, their poor fellow-countrymen, Exo 22:25 and Lev 25:36. When the creditors had given the consent required, Nehemiah called the priests, and made them (the creditors) swear to do according to this promise, i.

e. , conscientiously to adhere to their agreement. Nehemiah obtained the attendance of the priests, partly for the purpose of giving solemnity to the oath now taken, and partly to give to the declaration made in the presence of the priests legal validity for judicial decisions.

Neh 5:10-12 “I, likewise my brethren and my servants (comp. Neh 4:17), have lent them money and corn; let us, I pray, remit (not ask back) this loan! ” The participle נשׁים says: we are those who have lent. Herewith he connects the invitation, Neh 5:11 : “Restore unto them, I pray you, even this day (כּהיּום, about this day, i. e. , even to-day, 1Sa 9:13), their fields, their vineyards, their olive gardens, and their houses, and the hundredth of the money, and of the corn, wine, and oil which you have lent them.

” Nehemiah requires, 1 st , that those who held the lands of their poorer brethren in pledge should restore them their property without delay: 2 nd , that they should remit to their debtors all interest owing on money, corn, etc. that had been lent; not, as the words have been frequently understood, that they should give back to their debtors such interest as they had already received.

That the words in Neh 5:11 bear the former, and not the latter signification, is obvious from the reply, Neh 5:12, of those addressed: “We will restore, sc. their lands, etc. , and will not querie of them, sc. the hundredth; so will we do as thou sayest. ” Hence we must not translate בּהם נשׁים אתּם אשׁר, “which you had taken from them as interest” (de Wette), - a translation which, moreover, cannot be justified by the usage of the language, for ב נשׁה does not mean to take interest from another, to lend to another on interest.

The אשׁר relates not to וּמאת, but to והיּצהר ... הדּגן; and השׁיב, to restore, to make good, is used of both the transactions in question, meaning in the first clause the restoration of the lands retained as pledges, and in the second, the remission (the non-requirement) of the hundredth. The hundredth taken as interest is probably, like the centesima of the Romans, to be understood of a monthly payment.

One per cent. per month was a very heavy interest, and one which, in the case of the poor, might be exorbitant. The law, moreover, forbade the taking of any usury from their brethren, their poor fellow-countrymen, Exo 22:25 and Lev 25:36. When the creditors had given the consent required, Nehemiah called the priests, and made them (the creditors) swear to do according to this promise, i.

e. , conscientiously to adhere to their agreement. Nehemiah obtained the attendance of the priests, partly for the purpose of giving solemnity to the oath now taken, and partly to give to the declaration made in the presence of the priests legal validity for judicial decisions.

Neh 5:13 To make the agreement thus sworn to still more binding, Nehemiah confirmed the proceeding by a symbolical action: Also I shook my lap, and said, So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth (fulfilleth) not this promise, and thus may he be shaken out and emptied. חצן means the lap of the garment, in which things are carried (Isa 49:22), where alone the word is again found.

The symbolical action consisted in Nehemiah’s gathering up his garment as if for the purpose of carrying something, and then shaking it out with the words above stated, which declared the meaning of the act. The whole congregation said Amen, and praised the Lord, sc. for the success with which God had blessed his efforts to help the poor. And the people did according to this promise, i.

e. , the community acted in accordance with the agreement entered into. Nehemiah’s unselfish conduct . - The transaction above related gave Nehemiah occasion to speak in his narrative of the unselfishness with which he had filled the office of governor, and of the personal sacrifices he had made for the good of his fellow-countrymen.

Neh 5:14 The statement following is compared with the special occurrence preceding it by גּם. As in this occurrence he had used his credit to do away with the oppression of the people by wealthy usurers, so also had he shown himself unselfish during his whole official career, and shunned no sacrifice by which he might lighten the burdens that lay upon his fellow-countrymen.

“From the time that he appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two-and-thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, I and my servants have not eaten the bread of the governor. ” The subject of צוּה is left undefined, but is obviously King Artaxerxes. פּחם, their (the Jews') governor. This he was from the twentieth (comp.

Neh 2:1) to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, in which, according to Neh 13:6, he again visited the court of this monarch, returning after a short interval to Jerusalem, to carry out still further the work he had there undertaken. “The bread of the Pechah” is, according to Neh 5:15, the food and wine with which the community had to furnish him. The meaning is: During this whole period I drew no allowances from the people.

Neh 5:15 The former governors who had been before me in Jerusalem - Zerubbabel and his successors-had received allowances, העם על הכבּידוּ, had burdened the people, and had taken of them (their fellow-countrymen) for bread and wine (i. e. , for the requirements of their table), “afterwards in money forty shekels. ” Some difficulty is presented by the word אחר, which the lxx render by ἔσχατον, the Vulgate quotidie .

The meaning ultra, praeter , besides (EW. §217, 1), can no more be shown to be that of אחר, than over can, which Bertheau attempts to justify by saying that after forty shekels follow forty-one, forty-two, etc. The interpretation, too: reckoned after money (Böttcher, de Inferis , §409, b, and N. krit. Aehrenl . iii. p. 219), cannot be supported by the passages quoted in its behalf, since in none of them is אחר used de illo quod normae est , but has everywhere fundamentally the local signification after .

Why, then, should not אחר be here used adverbially, afterwards , and express the thought that this money was afterwards demanded from the community for the expenses of the governor’s table? “Even their servants bare rule over the people. ” שׁלט denotes arbitrary, oppressive rule, abuse of power for extortions, etc. Nehemiah, on the contrary, had not thus acted because of the fear of God.

Neh 5:16 “And also I took part in the work of this wall; neither bought we any land, and all my servants were gathered thither unto the work. ” בּ החזיק = בּ יד החזיק, to set the hand to something; here, to set about the work. The manner in which Nehemiah, together with his servants, set themselves to the work of wall-building is seen from Neh 4:10, Neh 4:12, Neh 4:15, and Neh 4:17.

Neither have we (I and my servants) bought any land, i. e. , have not by the loan of money and corn acquired mortgages of land; comp. Neh 5:10.

Neh 5:17 But this was not all; for Nehemiah had also fed a considerable number of persons at his table, at his own expense. “And the Jews, both one hundred and fifty rulers, and the men who came to us from the nations round about us, were at my table,” i.e., were my guests. The hundred and fifty rulers, comp. Neh 2:16, were the heads of the different houses of Judah collectively. These were always guests at Nehemiah’s table, as were also such Jews as dwelt among the surrounding nations, when they came to Jerusalem.

Neh 5:18 “And that which was prepared for one (i. e. , a single) day was one ox, six choice (therefore fat) sheep, and fowls; they were prepared for me, i. e. , at my expense, and once in ten days a quantity of wine of all kinds. ” The meaning of the last clause seems to be, that the wine was furnished every ten days; no certain quantity, however, is mentioned, but it is only designated in general terms as very great, להרבּה.

זה ועם, and with this, i. e. , notwithstanding this, great expenditure, I did not require the bread of the Pechah (the allowance for the governor, comp. Neh 5:14), for the service was heavy upon the people. העבדה is the service of building the walls of Jerusalem. Thus Nehemiah, from compassion for his heavily burdened countrymen, resigned the allowance to which as governor he was entitled.

Neh 5:19 “Think upon me, my God, for good, all that I have done for this people. ” Compare the repetition of this desire, Neh 13:14 and Neh 13:31. על עשׂה in the sense of ל עשׂה, for the sake of this people, i. e. , for them. When Sanballat and the enemies associated with him were unable to obstruct the building of the wall of Jerusalem by Open violence (Neh 4), they endeavoured to ruin Nehemiah by secret snares.

They invited him to meet them in the plain of Ono (Neh 6:1, Neh 6:2); but Nehemiah, perceiving that they intended mischief, replied to them by messengers, that he could not come to them on account of the building. After receiving for the fourth time this refusal, Sanballat sent his servant to Nehemiah with an open letter, in which he accused him of rebellion against the king of Persia.

Nehemiah, however, repelled this accusation as the invention of Sanballat (Neh 6:3-9). Tobiah and Sanballat, moreover, hired a false prophet to make Nehemiah flee into the temple from fear of the snares prepared for him, that they might then be able to calumniate him (Neh 6:10-14). The building of the wall was completed in fifty-two days, and the enemies were disheartened (Neh 6:15-17), although at that time many nobles of Judah had entered into epistolary correspondence with Tobiah, to obstruct the proceedings of Nehemiah (Neh 6:18, Neh 6:19).

Neh 6:1-2 The attempts of Sanballat and his associates to ruin Nehemiah . - Neh 6:1, Neh 6:2. When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of the enemies, heard that the wall was built, and that no breaches were left therein, though the doors were then not yet set up in the gates, he sent, etc. לו נשׁמע, it was heard by him, in the indefinite sense of: it came to his ears.

The use of the passive is more frequent in later Hebrew; comp. Neh 6:6, Neh 6:7, Neh 13:27; Est 1:20, and elsewhere. On Sanballat and his allies, see remarks on Neh 2:19. The “rest of our enemies” were, according to Neh 4:1 (Neh 4:7, A. V.) , Ashdodites, and also other hostile individuals. וגו העת עד גּם introduces a parenthetical sentence limiting the statement already made: Nevertheless, down to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates.

The wall-building was quite finished, but doors to the gates were as yet wanting to the complete fortification of the city. The enemies sent to him, saying, Come, let us meet together (for a discussion) in the villages in the valley of Ono. - In Neh 6:7, נוּערה of the present verse. The form כּפרים, elsewhere only כּפר, 1Ch 27:25, or כּפר, village, 1Sa 6:18, occurs only here.

כּפירה, however, being found Ezr 2:25 and elsewhere as a proper name, the form כּפיר seems to have been in use as well as כּפר. There is no valid ground for regarding כּפרים as the proper name of a special locality. To make their proposal appear impartial, they leave the appointment of the place in the valley of Ono to Nehemiah. Ono seems, according to 1Ch 8:12, to have been situate in the neighbourhood of Lod (Lydda), and is therefore identified by Van de Velde ( Mem .

p. 337) and Bertheau with Kefr Ana (Arab. kfr ‛ânâ ) or Kefr Anna, one and three-quarter leagues north of Ludd. But no certain information concerning the position of the place can be obtained from 1Ch 8:12; and Roediger (in the Hallische Lit. Zeitung , 1842, No. 71, p. 665) is more correct, in accordance both with the orthography and the sense, in comparing it with Beit Unia (Arab.

byt ûniya ), north-west of Jerusalem, not far from Beitin (Bethel); comp. Rob. Pal . ii. p. 351. The circumstance that the plain of Ono was, according to the present verse, somewhere between Jerusalem and Samaria, which suits Beit Unia, but not Kefr Ana (comp. Arnold in Herzog’s Realenc . xii. p. 759), is also in favour of the latter view. “But they thought to do me harm.

” Probably they wanted to make him a prisoner, perhaps even to assassinate him.

Neh 6:1-2 The attempts of Sanballat and his associates to ruin Nehemiah . - Neh 6:1, Neh 6:2. When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of the enemies, heard that the wall was built, and that no breaches were left therein, though the doors were then not yet set up in the gates, he sent, etc. לו נשׁמע, it was heard by him, in the indefinite sense of: it came to his ears.

The use of the passive is more frequent in later Hebrew; comp. Neh 6:6, Neh 6:7, Neh 13:27; Est 1:20, and elsewhere. On Sanballat and his allies, see remarks on Neh 2:19. The “rest of our enemies” were, according to Neh 4:1 (Neh 4:7, A. V.) , Ashdodites, and also other hostile individuals. וגו העת עד גּם introduces a parenthetical sentence limiting the statement already made: Nevertheless, down to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates.

The wall-building was quite finished, but doors to the gates were as yet wanting to the complete fortification of the city. The enemies sent to him, saying, Come, let us meet together (for a discussion) in the villages in the valley of Ono. - In Neh 6:7, נוּערה of the present verse. The form כּפרים, elsewhere only כּפר, 1Ch 27:25, or כּפר, village, 1Sa 6:18, occurs only here.

כּפירה, however, being found Ezr 2:25 and elsewhere as a proper name, the form כּפיר seems to have been in use as well as כּפר. There is no valid ground for regarding כּפרים as the proper name of a special locality. To make their proposal appear impartial, they leave the appointment of the place in the valley of Ono to Nehemiah. Ono seems, according to 1Ch 8:12, to have been situate in the neighbourhood of Lod (Lydda), and is therefore identified by Van de Velde ( Mem .

p. 337) and Bertheau with Kefr Ana (Arab. kfr ‛ânâ ) or Kefr Anna, one and three-quarter leagues north of Ludd. But no certain information concerning the position of the place can be obtained from 1Ch 8:12; and Roediger (in the Hallische Lit. Zeitung , 1842, No. 71, p. 665) is more correct, in accordance both with the orthography and the sense, in comparing it with Beit Unia (Arab.

byt ûniya ), north-west of Jerusalem, not far from Beitin (Bethel); comp. Rob. Pal . ii. p. 351. The circumstance that the plain of Ono was, according to the present verse, somewhere between Jerusalem and Samaria, which suits Beit Unia, but not Kefr Ana (comp. Arnold in Herzog’s Realenc . xii. p. 759), is also in favour of the latter view. “But they thought to do me harm.

” Probably they wanted to make him a prisoner, perhaps even to assassinate him.

Neh 6:3 Nehemiah sent messengers to them, saying: “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down thither. Why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you?” That is, he let them know that he could not undertake the journey, because his presence in Jerusalem was necessary for the uninterrupted prosecution of the work of building.

Neh 6:4 They sent to him four times in the same manner (הזּה כּדּבר, comp. 2Sa 15:6), and Nehemiah gave them the same answer.