Nehemiah 5:4

4 There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.

Nehemiah 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:4

There were also that said
Who though they were able to buy corn for their families without mortgaging their estates: yet, say they,

we have borrowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands
and vineyards;
for though the priests, Levites, and Nethinims, were exempted from it, yet not the people in common; and some of these were so poor, that they could not pay it without borrowing upon their estates, and paying large usury for it, see ( Ezra 6:8 ) ( 7:24 )

Nehemiah 5:4 In-Context

2 For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

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

4 There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.

5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

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