Nehemiah 5:13

13 Then I emptied my pockets, turning them inside out, and said, "So may God empty the pockets and house of everyone who doesn't keep this promise - turned inside out and emptied." Everyone gave a wholehearted "Yes, we'll do it!" and praised God. And the people did what they promised. "Remember in My Favor, O My God"

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 Give them back their foreclosed fields, vineyards, olive groves, and homes right now. And forgive your claims on their money, grain, new wine, and olive oil."
12 They said, "We'll give it all back. We won't make any more demands on them. We'll do everything you say."
13 Then I emptied my pockets, turning them inside out, and said, "So may God empty the pockets and house of everyone who doesn't keep this promise - turned inside out and emptied." Everyone gave a wholehearted "Yes, we'll do it!" and praised God. And the people did what they promised. "Remember in My Favor, O My God"
14 From the time King Artaxerxes appointed me as their governor in the land of Judah - from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of his reign, twelve years - neither I nor my brothers used the governor's food allowance.
15 Governors who had preceded me had oppressed the people by taxing them forty shekels of silver (about a pound) a day for food and wine while their underlings bullied the people unmercifully. But out of fear of God I did none of that.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.