Nehemiah 5

14. Moreover from the time that I was appointed . . . I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor-- We have a remarkable proof both of the opulence and the disinterestedness of Nehemiah. As he declined, on conscientious grounds, to accept the lawful emoluments attached to his government, and yet maintained a style of princely hospitality for twelve years out of his own resources, it is evident that his office of cup-bearer at the court of Shushan must have been very lucrative.

15. the former governors . . . had taken . . . bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver--The income of Eastern governors is paid partly in produce, partly in money. "Bread" means all sorts of provision. The forty shekels of silver per day would amount to a yearly salary of about $9,000.

17. Moreover there were at my table an hundred and fifty of the Jews--In the East it has been always customary to calculate the expense of a king's or grandee's establishment, not by the amount of money disbursed, but by the quantity of provisions consumed (see 1 Kings 4:22 , 18:19 , Ecclesiastes 5:11 ).