Nehemiah 5:4

Neh 5:4 There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, [and that upon] our lands and vineyards.

Ver. 4. There were also that said] Here was a third complaint to good Nehemiah; to whom whosoever lamented were sure to have redress and remedy, he did not serve these poor people as that merciless bishop of Mentz, in Germany, did; who, to rid his hands of them in a time of famine, in horreo conclusos iussit concremari, shut them up all together in a barn, and there burnt them (Hatto, Archiep. Mogunt. A. D. 923). He was afterwards eaten to death by rats, non sine maxima divinae vindictae suspicione, saith mine author, by a just hand of God upon him for his cruelty to those poor, whom he would not relieve with his grain, but let the rats eat it; and of whom he said, when they were burning in his barn, that they cried like a company of rats.

We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute] They did not deny payment, and rise up in arms, making poverty their captain, as the Suffolk men did here in Henry VIII’s time. Neither did they answer the king of Persia’s officers, as the men of Andros once did Themistocles. He, being sent by the Athenians to them for tribute, told them that he came unto them on that errand, accompanied with two goddesses, Eloquence, to persuade, and Violence, to enforce them. Their answer was, that they also had on their side two goddesses as strong; Necessity, for they had it not, and Impossibility, for they knew not how to raise it (Plutarch). These men pawn their lands to pay tribute; but it went to their hearts, and caused this complaint.

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 5:4. We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute — Which was laid upon them all, Ezr 4:13; Ezr 7:24. Houbigant renders the last part of this verse, for the king’s tribute on our lands and vineyards.

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

5:4 to pay our taxes: Despite the famine, the Persians did not cancel the onerous royal tribute due at harvest time.

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

To pay our tribute to the king of the Persians, which was exacted yearly of us.

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

Verse 4. We have borrowed money] This should be read, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute on our lands and vineyards. They had a tax to pay to the Persian king in token of their subjection to him, and though it is not likely it was heavy, yet they were not able to pay it.

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

(4) We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute.—Literally, we have made our fields and vineyards answerable for the payment of the Persian tribute. They had pledged the coming produce.

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

4. Yet a third class is mentioned, who had been compelled to borrow in order to pay the taxes and, not having the means to pay their creditors, sold their children as slaves.

we have borrowed … for the king’s tribute] One special cause of distress seems to have been the heaviness of the royal taxes. Jews who were poor to start with and impoverished by recent circumstances, found themselves under the necessity of borrowing in order to pay the tribute levied by the Persian king from his foreign subjects. See on ‘tribute’ note on Ezr_4:13; Ezr_4:20; Ezr_6:8; Ezr_7:24. On the severity of this taxation in the Persian Empire see Neh_9:37.

and that upon our lands and vineyards] R.V. upon our fields and vineyards. The poor people, in order to pay the tax, borrowed money upon the security of their small holdings. In this way a considerable portion of the property of the poorer classes had passed into the hands of the wealthy money-lenders, who exacted high usury (Neh_5:11), and had no compunction in plying their trade, and visiting default of payment with seizure of a fellow-countryman’s few acres of field and vineyard. At a time when distress was due to the presence of a common foe, this want of generosity and patriotism excited the indignation of the working classes. Even in the more favourable cases, the necessity of paying the interest upon the mortgages deprived the poor Jew of any profits from his holding.

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.

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

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

The king’s tribute - The tax payable to the Persian monarch (compare Ezr 4:13; Est 10:1). In ancient times, heavy taxation was often productive of debt and distress.

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

Let us. Septuagint Mont.[Montanus?], "We have borrowed" on usury, contrary to Exodus xxii. 25. The Jews were still obliged to pay tribute.

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).

The kings tribute was laid upon them all. See Ezr 4:13; 7:24

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

4. We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute — These represent a third class, whose lands and vineyards seem to have afforded them food for their personal wants, but not money with which to pay the taxes assessed upon them. The princes and wealthier men among the Jews took advantage of this impoverishment of their poorer brethren to exact exorbitant and unlawful interest upon the money they loaned them. Neh_5:7. This was expressly forbidden in the law. Exo_22:25; Deu_23:19. But to obtain this money these persons also had to mortgage or pledge their lands and vineyards. These last two nouns are to be construed, grammatically, as accusatives after borrowed, which verb has not only the sense of borrowing something, but also of pledging something for that which is borrowed.

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

The king"s tribute. Judaea, like other Persian provinces, had to pay a tribute, partly in money and partly in kind, yearly to the Persian monarch; (see the comment on Ezr_4:13) but there is no reason to believe that this burthen was generally felt as oppressive, nor that it was heavier in Judaea than elsewhere. But by the very poor even a small amount of direct taxation is felt as a grievance; and the necessity of meeting the demands of the tax-gatherer was in the ancient world often the turning-point, which compelled the contracting of a debt (Liv., 2:23); and so it seems to have been with these complainants.

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

Yet now our flesh and blood is the same as our brothers, and our children are the same as their children

Here the Jews are implying that they are of the same Jewish descent as the other Jews and that they of the same importance as the others. The meaning of this can be made clear. AT: "Yet our families are Jews just like the other Jew's families, and our children are just as important to us as their children are to them" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

our flesh and blood

This is an idiom which refers to their family members. AT: "our family" (See: Idiom)

Some of our daughters have already been enslaved

This can be stated in active form. AT: "We have already sold some of our daughters into slavery" (See: Active or Passive)

But it is not in our power to help it because other men now own our fields and our vineyards

Since the mens' fields and vineyards are not in their possession, they are unable to produce the money they need to support their families. The full meaning of this can be made clear. AT: "But we are unable to change this situation because other men now own our fields and our vineyards which we need to support our lives" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

it is not in our power

This is an idiom which means that they do not have the resources to do something. AT: "we are unable" (See: Idiom)

translationWords

king

tax

vineyard

flesh

brother

children

servant

power

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

And there were some who were saying, “We have borrowed money” And there were some who were saying, “We have already borrowed money from others on our fields and our vineyards to pay the king’s tax, and now we have nothing for our support.”

for the king’s tax Heb. לְמִדַּת, for the king’s tax, like (Ezra 4:13): “...the king’s due (מִנְדָּה), the head tax, and the meal tax.”

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.