Nehemiah 5:15

15 But as for the former acts of extortion wherein before me oppressed them, they even took of them their last money, forty didrachms for bread and wine; and the outcasts of them exercised authority over the people: but I did not so, because of the fear of God.

Nehemiah 5:15 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:15

But the former governors, that had been before me, were
chargeable to the people
Between him and Zerubbabel, for Ezra was no governor; according to the Jewish chronology ^F13, when Ezra came to Jerusalem, Zerubbabel returned to Babylon, and there died, and his son Methullam was in his stead, and after him succeeded Hananiah his son:

and had taken of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver;
which amounted to between four and five pounds, and this they had every day:

yea, even their servants bare rule over the people;
required a salary, or at least perquisites of them, which the governors connived at:

but so did not I, because of the fear of God;
neither took anything himself of the people, nor suffered his servants; because the fear of God was upon his heart, and before his eyes, and therefore could not allow himself to oppress the poor.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F13 Seder Olam Zuta, p. 108, 109.

Nehemiah 5:15 In-Context

13 And I shook out my garment, and said, So may God shake out every man who shall not keep to this word, from his house, and from his labours, he shall be even thus shaken out, as an outcast and empty. And all the congregation said, Amen, and they praised the Lord: and the people did this thing.

14 From the day that he charged me to be their ruler in the land of Juda, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Arthasastha, twelve years, I and my brethren ate not extorted from them.

15 But as for the former acts of extortion wherein before me oppressed them, they even took of them their last money, forty didrachms for bread and wine; and the outcasts of them exercised authority over the people: but I did not so, because of the fear of God.

16 Also in the work of the wall I treated them not with rigor, I bought not land: and all that were gathered together thither to the work.

17 And the Jews, to a hundred and fifty men, besides those coming to us from the nations round about, at my table.