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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nehemiah 5:6 - 5:6
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The abolition of usury. - Neh 5:6 Nehemiah was very angry at this complaint and these things, i.e., the injustice which had been brought to his knowledge.
Neh 5:7
“And my heart took counsel upon it (יִמָּלֵךְ according to the Chaldee use of מְלַךְ, Dan 4:24), and I contended with the nobles and rulers, and said to them, Ye exact usury every one of his brother.” בְ נָשָׁא means to lend to any one, and מַשָּׁא, also מַשְּׁאָה, Deu 24:10; Pro 22:26, and mashe', is the thing lent, the loan, what one borrows from or lends to another. Consequently מַשָּׁא נָשָׁא is to lend some one a loan; comp. Deu 24:10. This does not seem to suit this verse. For Nehemiah cannot reproach the nobles for lending loans, when he and his servants had, according to Neh 5:10, done so likewise. Hence the injustice of the transaction which he rebukes must be expressed in the emphatic precedence given to מַשָּׁא. Bertheau accordingly regards מַשָּׁא not as the accusative of the object, but as an independent secondary accusative in the sense of: for the sake of demanding a pledge, ye lend. But this rendering can be neither grammatically nor lexically justified. In the first respect it is opposed by מַשְּׁאָה הִשָּׁא, Deu 24:10, which shows that מַשָּׁא in conjunction with נָשָׁא is the accusative of the object; in the other, by the constant use of מַשָּׁא in all passages in which it occurs to express a loan, not a demand for a pledge. From Exo 22:24, where it is said, “If thou lend money (תַּלְוֶה) to the poor, thou shalt not be to him כְּנֹשֶׁה, shalt not lay upon him usury,” it is evident that נֹשֶׁה is one who lends money on usury, or carries on the business of a money-lender. This evil secondary meaning of the word is here strongly marked by the emphatic praeposition of מַשָּׁא; hence Nehemiah is speaking of those who practise usury. “And I appointed a great assembly on their account,” to put a stop to the usury and injustice by a public discussion of the matter. עֲלֵיהֶם, not against them (the usurers), but on their account.
Neh 5:8
In this assembly he reproached them with the injustice of their behaviour. “We” (said he) “have, after our ability, redeemed our brethren the Jews which were sold unto the heathen; yet ye would sell your brethren, and they are to be sold to us.” We (i.e., Nehemiah and the Jews living in exile, who were like-minded with him) have bought, in contrast to ye sell. They had redeemed their Jewish brethren who were sold to the heathen. בָנוּ כְּדֵי for בָנוּ אֲשֶׁר כְּדֵי, i.e., not according to the full number of those who were among us, meaning as often as a sale of this kind occurred (Bertheau); for דַּי does not mean completeness, multitude, but only sufficiency, supply, adequacy of means (Lev 25:26); hence בָנוּ כְּדֵי is: according to the means that we had: secundum sufficientiam vel facultatem, quae in nobis est (Ramb.), or secundum possibilitatem nostram (Vulg.). The contrast is still more strongly expressed by the placing of גַּם before אַתֶּם, so that וְגַם acquires the meaning of nevertheless (Ewald, §354, a). The sale of their brethren for bond-servants was forbidden by the law, Lev 25:42. The usurers had nothing to answer to this reproach. “They held their peace, and found no word,” sc. in justification of their proceedings.
Neh 5:9
Nehemiah, moreover, continued (ויאמר, the Chethiv, is evidently a clerical error for וָאִמַר, for the Niphal וַיֵּאָמֵר does not suit): “The thing ye do is not good: ought ye not (= ye surely ought) to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?” i.e., we ought not, by harsh and unloving conduct towards our brethren, to give our enemies occasion to calumniate us.
Neh 5:10-12
“I, likewise my brethren and my servants (comp. Neh 4:17), have lent them money and corn; let us, I pray, remit (not ask back) this loan!” The participle נֹשִׁים says: we are those who have lent. Herewith he connects the invitation, Neh 5:11 : “Restore unto them, I pray you, even this day (כְּהַיֹּום, about this day, i.e., even to-day, 1Sa 9:13), their fields, their vineyards, their olive gardens, and their houses, and the hundredth of the money, and of the corn, wine, and oil which you have lent them.” Nehemiah requires, 1st, that those who held the lands of their poorer brethren in pledge should restore them their property without delay: 2nd, that they should remit to their debtors all interest owing on money, corn, etc. that had been lent; not, as the words have been frequently understood, that they should give back to their debtors such interest as they had already received. That the words in Neh 5:11 bear the former, and not the latter signification, is obvious from the reply, Neh 5:12, of those addressed: “We will restore, sc. their lands, etc., and will not querie of them, sc. the hundredth; so will we do as thou sayest.” Hence we must not translate בָּהֶם נֹשִׁים אַתֶּם אֲשֶׁר, “which you had taken from them as interest” (de Wette), - a translation which, moreover, cannot be justified by the usage of the language, for בְ נָשָׁה does not mean to take interest from another, to lend to another on interest. The אֲשֶׁר relates not to וּמְאַת, but to וְהַיִּצְהָר ... הַדָּגָן; and הֵשִׁיב, to restore, to make good, is used of both the transactions in question, meaning in the first clause the restoration of the lands retained as pledges, and in the second, the remission (the non-requirement) of the hundredth. The hundredth taken as interest is probably, like the centesima of the Romans, to be understood of a monthly payment. One per cent. per month was a very heavy interest, and one which, in the case of the poor, might be exorbitant. The law, moreover, forbade the taking of any usury from their brethren, their poor fellow-countrymen, Exo 22:25 and Lev 25:36. When the creditors had given the consent required, Nehemiah called the priests, and made them (the creditors) swear to do according to this promise, i.e., conscientiously to adhere to their agreement. Nehemiah obtained the attendance of the priests, partly for the purpose of giving solemnity to the oath now taken, and partly to give to the declaration made in the presence of the priests legal validity for judicial decisions.
Neh 5:13
To make the agreement thus sworn to still more binding, Nehemiah confirmed the proceeding by a symbolical action: Also I shook my lap, and said, So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth (fulfilleth) not this promise, and thus may he be shaken out and emptied. חֹצֶן means the lap of the garment, in which things are carried (Isa 49:22), where alone the word is again found. The symbolical action consisted in Nehemiah's gathering up his garment as if for the purpose of carrying something, and then shaking it out with the words above stated, which declared the meaning of the act. The whole congregation said Amen, and praised the Lord, sc. for the success with which God had blessed his efforts to help the poor. And the people did according to this promise, i.e., the community acted in accordance with the agreement entered into.