Bible Commentary - Nehemiah 5

In this chapter, Nehemiah confronts the nobles of Judah and forces them to return the property and servants that they purchased from the Jews under duress.

Basically what’s going on is that there is another famine in Judah, like the famine that struck Egypt and the promised land during the time of Joseph (Genesis 41-42).  The wealthy men, by virtue of their wealth, have accumulated grain and are now selling it back to the Jews at extortionary prices, using the money to buy property and making slaves of the Jews.  Verse 11 tells us that they were taking “the hundredth part” of money and grain, which is referring to a 1% interest rate.  That sounds low, but it’s likely that they were charging the people 1% per month, so around 12% per year.

At this point, I should mention that Deut 23:19-20 specifically commands the Israelites to refrain from charging their brethren interest, so in this case the nobles are violating the Law of Moses as well as exploiting their countrymen in a time when the poor Jews would have been unable to resist.

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem, he found the men of Judah intermarrying with foreign women, which was contrary to the Law.  This chapter is Nehemiah’s equivalent experience, and Nehemiah’s response is also quite similar.  Like Ezra, Nehemiah gathers all the people together and then publicly confronts the leading men of Judah and tells them that they are doing wrong.  Also like with Ezra, the men agree that they are doing wrong and promise to fix their behavior.  Verse 13 confirms that they “did according to this promise”, so it appears as though Nehemiah’s intervention fixed the problem.

The last 6 verses of this chapter include Nehemiah’s descriptions of his own righteous behavior as governor (which directly confirms his political role as ruler of the Judeans on behalf of the Persian king).  What it boils down to is that he refused to take food or money from the people (which was a right conferred on the governor) and on the flip side, he permitted 150 men to eat from his table, for free, provided from his own personal wealth.

This is the first sign that Nehemiah was a wealthy man.  We knew that he was an influential official in exile, but that was most likely as a slave in the king’s household.  It’s possible he could attain great wealth through his role and the king’s generosity, but it’s not a certainty.  So apparently Nehemiah is a wealthy man, and he refuses to use his position to enrich himself at the expense of the Jews.  We learn from v. 8 that other Jews are not faring as well in exile, and that many Jews had to be “redeemed” (i.e. re-purchased) from slavery in Babylon.  The upshot is that Nehemiah himself is using his personal wealth to redeem other Jews from their slavery.

Coming to the end of this chapter, I would like to again ask the question: what lessons can we learn from this chapter?  I think there are a couple directions we could take this chapter, but I think what stands out to me is contrasting Nehemiah with the Judean nobles and in particular, how they use their wealth.

Like the nobles of Judah, Nehemiah is a wealthy man, and his wealth gives him influence.  However, the way Nehemiah uses his wealth could not be any more different.  The nobles use their wealth as leverage to continue enriching themselves.  Not only does Nehemiah not take advantage of his people, he uses his wealth to purchase freedom for some and provide food for others, free of charge.

Nehemiah probably owns land (though he says in v. 16 that he did not buy any land, which probably refers to buying property from distressed owners) and he certainly owns large flocks and herds.  One thing I’ve learned as I became an adult is the power that comes with wealth to produce yet more money.  If you have a million dollars, you can buy businesses or land and property, you can hire employees and produce new wealth.  It’s very likely that Nehemiah was doing that, growing his flocks and herds to sustain his table and his own personal lifestyle while serving as governor.

In fact, in v. 10 Nehemiah says that he was also lending money and grain to the poor Jews, but he was doing so without interest which is really the important part.  It is possible to run a business in an honest and fair way and to become wealthy through honest and fair means.  I think God is happy to have his people become wealthy through honest trade and honest labor.  However, the Jewish nobles are seeking to enrich themselves to the detriment of their brothers, which is a poisonous attitude.  What do they want the money for?  Is this not greed?  Is this not coveting, which the LORD condemned in Deut 5:21, the tenth commandment?

In discussing Nehemiah chapter 3, I talked at length about the importance of unity and collaboration for the community to succeed in building the wall.  It might seem like Nehemiah is going off topic in this chapter, but I think the attitude of the Judean nobles is cutting directly against the unity of the people, because the nobles are seeking to benefit themselves by hurting their neighbors.  There cannot be unity between two people if one is taking unfair advantage of the other, because it destroys any possibility of trust between them.  The nobles see the poor not as their brothers, but as targets or resources to be exploited.  The poor see the nobles not as their brothers, but as oppressors or predators.  In an indirect way, this actually threatens Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild the wall, so Nehemiah is earnest to fix this issue above and beyond the pursuit of justice.

Nehemiah does the opposite with his wealth.  Rather than using it as leverage to exploit the poor, he uses his wealth to help his people.  He grows his wealth through honest means and uses the excess to literally feed his people.  Rather than destroy unity, this helps to build unity because it enhances trust between the people and Nehemiah.  The people know that Nehemiah is not trying to take advantage of them, so they don’t have to be on guard or protect themselves against him.

If you’ve ever felt like someone was trying to take advantage of you, it’s as if you have to draw a shield between yourself and that person.  You create barriers between yourself and that person as a defense mechanism, but a side effect is that you cannot be fully honest and open with that person.  Through his generosity, Nehemiah breaks down those barriers and walls between him and the people he is leading.

For instance, in the past I used to have a manager at work that never really convinced me he was supporting my personal interests.  I always felt like he would help me if it didn’t conflict with what he wanted, but that he would always put his own interests and the interest of the team above myself.  I’m not sure that it’s true, but it’s the impression he created in me and as a result, I never felt like I could really trust him.  On the other hand, I had another manager who always seem really honest to me and it was clear he supported me as an individual more than the team.  Like if I wanted to transfer out of the team, he would have helped me even though it would have hurt the team’s effort.  Ironically, because I knew that he would support me, it left me free to sacrifice my own interests on behalf of the team.  For so long as I had a manager who wasn’t taking care of me, it’s like I instinctively knew that I had to take care of my own interests because nobody else was doing it.  When I had a manager who I knew was going to look out for my interests, I felt like I could put the team first because I knew that my manager would never ask me to do something that would hurt my career and that he would always counsel me if he felt I was making decisions that did not benefit me.

Between those two managers, I was always willing to work harder for the person who supported me in part because he made me feel safer and in part because I had an instinctive desire that I wanted him to succeed as a manager because in a sense, I want good people to win.  He was helping me so it seemed only natural that I would seek to benefit him by producing strong results.

I see this same attitude with Nehemiah.  He is seeking the good of his people, and it seems only natural that the people would reciprocate by helping to build the wall.  In this way, Nehemiah demonstrates his leadership skills as well as his altruistic use of wealth.

In the next chapter, the verbal attacks of Sanballat resume.