Nehemiah 5:2

2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

Nehemiah 5:2 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:2

For there were that said, we, our sons, and our daughters, are
many
Not that they complained of the number of their children, for a numerous offspring was always reckoned a blessing with the Jews; but this they observed to show that their families, being large, required a considerable quantity of food to support them:

therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat and live;
that is, they were obliged to take it at an exorbitant price, which is the thing complained of; or otherwise they must starve, the rich taking the advantage of their poverty and present dearth.

Nehemiah 5:2 In-Context

1 About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

4 Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.

5 We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”