1
A great protest was mounted by the people, including the wives, against their fellow Jews.
2
Some said, "We have big families, and we need food just to survive."
3
Others said, "We're having to mortgage our fields and vineyards and homes to get enough grain to keep from starving."
4
And others said, "We're having to borrow money to pay the royal tax on our fields and vineyards.
5
Look: We're the same flesh and blood as our brothers here; our children are just as good as theirs. Yet here we are having to sell our children off as slaves - some of our daughters have already been sold - and we can't do anything about it because our fields and vineyards are owned by somebody else."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.