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there was a widespread outcry from the common people and their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain to eat if we are to stay alive.”
3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses so we can buy grain during the famine.”
4 Still others were saying, “We had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and our children as their children, yet we are forced to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already sold into slavery, and we are powerless to redeem them back because our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”
6 I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these charges. 7 After I considered the matter, I rebuked the nobles and the officials. I told them, “Each of you is exacting usury from his fellow countrymen!” So I called together a large assembly to deal with them. 8 I told them, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners. Yet you are now selling your own brothers, and we are buying them back!” They remained silent, because they could find nothing to say.
9 So I said, “What you are doing is not good! Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God, and so avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies? 10 And likewise even I, my brothers, and my servants are lending them money and grain. But please, let us stop exacting this usury. 11 Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses straight away. Also return to them the usury you have been exacting from them—the hundredth part of their money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you have taken.”
12 They responded: “We will restore everything and require nothing more from them. We will do as you say.”
Then I summoned the priests and made them take an oath to keep this promise also. 13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God in this same way shake out anyone from his home and possessions who doesn’t keep this promise. May he be shaken out and left with nothing!”
At this, the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord. Then the people did as they had promised.
14 Moreover, from the time King Artaxerxes appointed me governor over the land of Judah, from the twentieth year of his reign until the thirty-second year—twelve years—I and my brothers never ate the governor’s allocation of food. 15 But the earlier governors who preceded me had placed a heavy burden on the common people. They had taken bread and wine from them, as well as forty shekels of silver. Even their lesser officials had also oppressed the people. But I did not do such things because of my reverence for God. 16 Instead, I devoted myself to the work of rebuilding the wall. All my lesser officials were also gathered there for the work; and we did not acquire any land.
17 Moreover, there were a hundred and fifty Jews and officials who ate at my table, as well as guests from the surrounding nations. 18 Each day, an ox, six choice sheep, and some poultry was prepared for me, and every ten days all kinds of wine were provided in abundance. But in spite of all this, I never demanded the governor’s allocation of food, because the burden would have been too heavy on the people.
19“Remember me favourably, O my God, according to all that I have done for this people.”