# Nehemiah 5

> Lumin Translation

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/read/nehemiah/5

Translated from Hebrew and Greek with AI, then checked for clarity and fidelity.

1. A great outcry arose from the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers.
2. There are those saying, "We—our sons and daughters—are many, so let us get grain, that we may eat and live."
3. Some were saying, "We are pledging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to obtain grain because of the famine."
4. There were those saying, "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute against our fields and our vineyards."
5. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children; see, we are forcing our sons and our daughters into bondservanthood, and some of our daughters have already been forced into it, with no power in our hand, for others hold our fields and our vineyards.
6. I was greatly angered when I heard their outcry and these matters.
7. My heart consulted me, so I reproved the nobles and the rulers, telling them, "Each of you exacts usury from his brother." Then I gathered a large assembly against them.
8. I said to them, "We have bought back our fellow Jews sold to the nations, as we were able; but even you sell your brothers, and they get sold to us?" Then they fell silent and found no reply.
9. I said, "The thing 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. Even I, my brothers, and my servants lend them money and grain. Please, let us abandon this usury.
11. Please return to them today their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, along with one hundredth of the silver, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you exact from them.
12. They said, "We will restore them and seek nothing more from them; so we will do, just as you say." Then I called the priests and made them swear to carry out this matter.
13. I also shook my lap and said, "So may God shake every man from his house and his labor who fails to uphold this promise; even so may he be shaken out and emptied." The whole assembly said, "Amen," and praised Yahweh. The people acted according to this promise.
14. Moreover, from the day he appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes—twelve years—my brothers and I have not eaten the governor's bread.
15. But the former governors who preceded me burdened the people heavily and took bread and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants ruled over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God.
16. I also held fast to the work of this wall, we bought no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
17. At my table there were one hundred fifty men of the Jews and the rulers, besides those who came to us from among the nations around us.
18. What was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep, with birds also made ready for me and, every ten days, an abundance of every kind of wine. Yet for all this, I required no governor's bread, because the forced labor weighed heavily on these people.
19. Remember me favorably, my God, for all that I have done for this people.

## Nearby chapters

[Nehemiah 4](https://www.lumin.faith/read/nehemiah/4.md)
[Nehemiah 6](https://www.lumin.faith/read/nehemiah/6.md)

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