Nehemiah 5:2

2. For there were that said] This and the two following verses describe the people’s complaint. Their misfortunes were brought to a climax by the condition of hostilities, which put an end to trade and threatened town and country with ruin. The class referred to in this verse are the labourers, who depended upon wages.

We … are many] The number of the poorer population in comparison with the wealthy was probably disproportionately large. The community since the return under Zerubbabel had never been prosperous. It had suffered much from the ill-treatment of the neighbouring peoples, more especially of the Samaritans. The pressure of the work on the wall, coupled with the expectation of attack, brought matters to a crisis. It was impossible to obtain regular employment, and prices had gone up. They had no property like those mentioned in Neh_5:3-4, upon the security of which they could borrow money.

therefore we take up corn for them &c.] R.V. let us get corn &c. The words in the A.V. are ambiguous. The clause expresses the wish. It is the utterance of the poor who have grown desperate. They demand food for themselves and their families. They cannot acquiesce in starvation, when they know that wealthy capitalists—their own fellow-countrymen—have made money out of their necessities and could well afford in a time of common peril to render them relief. Hence the words have a ring of menace. ‘If we are not given corn, let us take it’. It was equivalent to a threat either to use violence or to surrender the city to its enemies.

The Vulgate ‘accipiamus pro pretio eorum frumentum’ gives a different interpretation of the words. It supposes that these poor starving people offered to sell their children as slaves in order that they might get money to buy food for themselves. This gives a sense approximating that of the conjecture to read ‘’orebhim’ for ‘rabbim’, ‘We give in pledge our sons and our daughters.’ In favour of this conjecture it is claimed (1) that the alteration is very slight, (2) that it brings Neh_5:2 into close parallelism with Neh_5:3, (3) that it obviates the awkwardness of the present text ‘our sons and our daughters, we are many,’ (4) that the present text is at variance with Scripture in making the size of families a subject of complaint. The conjecture is ingenious. But the existing text gives a good sense (see above), and is supported by the versions, which do not show any variation of reading. The position of the words ‘our sons and our daughters, we’ &c. emphasizes the thought uppermost in the people’s mind. The conjecture doubtless increases the verbal parallelism between Neh_5:2-3. But this parallelism does not exist between Neh_5:3-4, and the proposed alteration gives an artificial appearance to the language used. Lastly the conjecture anticipates the statement contained in Neh_5:5. The fact that parents were on the point of giving their children in pledge as slaves forms the climax of the complaint. We should not therefore expect to find it mentioned in the present verse.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neh 5:2 For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, [are] many: therefore we take up corn [for them], that we may eat, and live.

Ver. 2. We, our sons, and our daughters are many] That is a mercy, had we but keeping for them. Their wives were very fruitful; sed luctuosa faecunditate (as Jerome saith of Laeta); for they had more mouths than meat for them. Tho young children asked for bread, and no man brake it unto them, Lam 4:4.

Therefore we take up corn for them] Grain upon use, to keep us from starving; and that by pawning or selling our dear children to the rich creditors for servants; till we can redeem them, which we are never like to do, Neh 5:5.

That we may eat and live] Merely to keep us alive; for else we would never have made our poor children bondslaves. But Necessitas durum telum, hunger is so pinching a pain, that a woman will eat her own child, as in the siege of Jerusalem, Samaria, Saguntum; yea, a man his own flesh, rather than die with hunger. Hitherto the poorest sort. Follows now another cry.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neh 5:2. We, our sons, and our daughters, are many — Which indeed is in itself a blessing, but to us is turned into a curse. The families that were most necessitous were most numerous. Those who have great families and little substance must learn to live by faith in God’s providence and promises: and those who have little families and great substance must make their abundance a supply for the wants of others. We take up corn for them, that we may eat and live — That is, we are compelled by our and their necessities to take up corn on unreasonable terms. Or, the sense of the words may be, Where, or how, shall we get corn, that we may eat and live?

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:2 Some farmers had diverted their efforts from raising crops to building the wall, leaving their large families in need of food to survive. Someone had to feed their families, or they would have to stop work on the wall and go home to work in their fields.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This is the complaint of the people, showing to what extremity they were brought unto.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 2. We, our sons, and our daughters, are many] Our families are larger than we can provide for; we are obliged to go in debt; and our richer brethren take advantage of our necessitous situation, and oppress us. The details which are given in the next verse are sufficiently plain.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) We take up.—Let us receive. This is a general appeal for the governor’s help.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For there were that said, we, our sons, and our daughters, are many,.... Not that they complained of the number of their children, for a numerous offspring was always reckoned a blessing with the Jews; but this they observed to show that their families, being large, required a considerable quantity of food to support them:

therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat and live; that is, they were obliged to take it at an exorbitant price, which is the thing complained of; or otherwise they must starve, the rich taking the advantage of their poverty and present dearth.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Are many - A slight emendation brings this verse into exact parallelism with the next, and gives the sense - “We have pledged our sons and our daughters, that we might get corn, and eat and live.” Compare Neh 5:5.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Very. Syriac, "and our brethren are too numerous" to find meat. --- For, &c. Hebrew, Septuagint, &c., "by force." (Abenezra, &c.) --- Yet most people explain it in the sense of the Vulgate. It was permitted to sell children in extreme distress, Exodus xxi. 7. (Grotius) (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

We, our sons, and our daughters, are many; which is in itself a blessing, but to us is turned into a curse.

We take up corn for them, i.e. we are forced by our and their necessities to take up corn, to wit, upon their own unreasonable terms, as is here implied, and plainly expressed in the following relation. Others, Let us take up, &c., i.e. seeing we do the public work, let provision be made for us and our children out of the public stock. But this is no petition, but a complaint, as will appear.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. There were that said — These seem to have been persons who held about the civil status of the Roman proletaries, who owned no property, but served the state with their children, and procured a livelihood by labouring for others. These were the lowest class of citizens.

Our sons, and our daughters, are many — That which was to the true Israelite the highest gratification and pleasure — a pledge that Jehovah’s blessing was with him — was in this case the occasion of oppression and sorrow.

We take up corn for them — The words for them should be omitted. To take up corn, means to receive or obtain it, not by violence, but by some specific arrangement with the wealthier classes who had corn to sell. How these poorer classes obtained their corn is not said, but the most natural inference is, (compare Neh_5:5; Neh_5:8,) that they sold themselves and their children as bond-servants to the richer Jews, according to the provisions of the law. Exo_21:7; Lev_25:39.

That we may eat, and live — Better, thought they, are food and life in bondage, than starvation and death in freedom.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

There were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many. Those who had large families were foremost in making complaint. They found their numerous progeny not the blessing that abundant offspring is ordinarily reckoned in Holy Scripture, but a burthen and an anxiety. Therefore we take up corn for them. We are obliged to get corn for them, or they would die, and have to run in debt for it. Corn, wine, and oil seem to have been lent, no less than money (ver. 11).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Many - Which is in itself a blessing, but to us is turned into a curse. Take up - We are forced to take up corn, upon unreasonable terms.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

There were some who were saying He gives a reason for his words: Why were they crying? Some of the poor people were saying, “We are many with our sons and daughters and have to buy corn. Now we will have to sell our sons and daughters in order to buy corn in order to live.” So were they crying about the rich Jews who did not wish to support them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.