Nehemiah 5:3

3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of 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 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

2 For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive. ”

3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. ”

4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

5 Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards. ”