Chapter 5 brings the rulers and the nobles back into the
picture. The question of usury is an old one for the Jews. Nehemiah
sorted it out, so that the nobles and rulers agreed to “restore... their lands,
their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part
of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil" (Neh. 6:11) that they had exacted of
them.
A favourite passage of Nehemiah for me is where he points out
that he hasn’t been a charge on the people – he even seems to have entertained
VIP’s at his own expense. He thinks he is in God’s good books: “Think
upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people”
is the conclusion of the chapter.
Joyce Voysey
Ed. The Message (by Eugene Petersen) offers clarity to some of the difficult passages here e.g. "Then I called a big meeting to deal with them (the nobles and officials), "We did everything we could to buy back our Jewish brothers who had to sell themselves as slaves to foreigners. And now you're selling these same brothers back into debt slavery! Does that mean that we have to buy them back again?"
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