Nehemiah 5:13

13 Shaking out the fold in my garment, I said, "May God thus shake every man from his house and from his work who fails to live up to this promise - may he be shaken out like this and made empty." The whole assembly said, "Amen!" and praised ADONAI; and the people did as they had promised.

Nehemiah 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:13

Also I shook my lap
The fore skirts of his garment, shaking the dust out of them, as a symbol of what follows; a like rite was used in the case of peace and war, the choice of either, by the Romans, as proposed by their ambassadors to the Carthaginians, as having either in their bosom to shake out ^F12:

and said, so God shake out every man from his house, and from his
labour;
what he has got by his labour:

that performeth not his promise;
confirmed by an oath:

even thus be he shaken out, and emptied;
of all that he has in the world, and out of the world too, as Jarchi adds:

and all the congregation said, Amen;
so let it be, even those that had taken pledges and usury, as well as others:

and praised the Lord;
that had given them such a governor to direct, advise, and exhort them to their duty, and had inclined their hearts to attend thereunto:

and the people did according to this promise;
they punctually kept it, and the oath they had sworn.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F12 Florus, l. 2. c. 6. Liv. l. 21. c. l8.

Nehemiah 5:13 In-Context

11 Please! Today! Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes; also the hundred pieces of silver and the grain, wine and olive oil you demand from them as interest."

12 They answered, "We will give it back. We will require nothing from them. Yes, we will do it, just as you say."Then I called the cohanim and took an oath from them that they would do as they had promised.

13 Shaking out the fold in my garment, I said, "May God thus shake every man from his house and from his work who fails to live up to this promise - may he be shaken out like this and made empty." The whole assembly said, "Amen!" and praised ADONAI; and the people did as they had promised.

14 Besides that, from the time I was appointed their governor in the land of Y'hudah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of Artach'shashta the king - that is, for twelve years - neither I nor my colleagues drew on the governor's living allowance.

15 The earlier governors, before me, had burdened the people, taxing them more than one-and-a-half pounds of silver shekels for food and wine; and even their servants lorded it over the people. But I didn't, because I feared God.