Nehemiah 5:13

13 I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, "So may God shake out everyone from house and from property who does not perform this promise. Thus may they be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said, "Amen," and praised the Lord. 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Nehemiah 5:13 In-Context

11 Restore to them, this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the interest on money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them."

12 Then they said, "We will restore everything and demand nothing more from them. We will do as you say." And I called the priests, and made them take an oath to do as they had promised.

13 I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, "So may God shake out everyone from house and from property who does not perform this promise. Thus may they be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said, "Amen," and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

14 Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor.

15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.