Nehemiah 5:3

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

Nehemiah 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:3

Some also there were that said, we have mortgaged our lands,
vineyards, and houses
Made them over to others, put them into their hands as pledges for money received of them:

that we may buy corn;
for the support of their families:

because of the dearth;
or famine; which might be occasioned by their enemies lying in wait and intercepting all provisions that might be brought to them; for this seems not to be the famine spoken of in ( Haggai 1:10 Haggai 1:11 ) for that was some years before this, and for a reason which now was not.

Nehemiah 5:3 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.”