Nehemiah 5:5

5 Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. {We are powerless}, and our fields and vineyards [belong] to others."

Nehemiah 5:5 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:5

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren
We are of the same nature, nation, stock, and religion: our children as their children; are circumcised as they, and have a right to the same privileges in church and state:

and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and daughters to be servants;
shall be obliged to it, unless relieved:

and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already;
sold to be servants, as they might in case of the poverty of parents, ( Exodus 21:7 ) , and some were sometimes taken to be bondmen in payment of their parents' debts, ( 2 Kings 4:1 )

neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands
and vineyards;
as pledges for money borrowed.

Nehemiah 5:5 In-Context

3 There were also those saying, "We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine."

4 And there were those who were saying, "We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king.

5 Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. {We are powerless}, and our fields and vineyards [belong] to others."

6 I was very angry when I heard their shouts and these words.

7 I thought over this in my heart, and then I quarreled with the nobles and the prefects. I said to them, "You yourselves are taking interest from your own brother!" So I called the great assembly against them,

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "There is no power in our hand"