Nehemiah 5:18

Overview - Nehemiah 5
The Jews complain of their debt, mortgage, and bondage.
Nehemiah rebukes the usurers, and causes them to make a covenant of restitution.
14 He forbears his own allowance, and keeps hospitality.
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Nehemiah 5:18  (King James Version)
Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.
 


Now that
1 Kings 4:22 1 Kings 4:23

one ox
This was food sufficient for more than two hundred men
Bp. Pococke says that the bey of Tunis had daily twelve sheep, with fish and fowls, soups, oranges, eggs, onions, boiled rice, etc
, etc. His nobles dined with him; after they had done, the servants sat down; and when they had finished, the poor took what was left. Here the bey's twelve sheep are equal to Nehemiah's one ox and six choice sheep; and probably the mode of living between the two was nearly alike. It is still the practice in the East to calculate the expenses of the table, not by the money paid, but by the provisions consumed by the guests.

required
Nehemiah 5:14 Nehemiah 5:15

because the bondage
Psalms 37:21 Psalms 37:26