Nehemiah 5

¹Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their countrymen the Jews.
²For there were some who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are a great number: let us get grain, so that we may have food for our needs.
³And there were some who said, We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get grain because we are in need.
⁴And there were others who said, We have given up our fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes.
⁵But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children: and now we are giving our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now: and we have no pow(possibly incomplete in the source)
⁶And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very angry.
⁷And after turning it over in my mind, I made a protest to the chiefs and the rulers, and said to them, Every one of you is taking interest from his countryman. And I got together a great meeting of protest.
⁸And I said to them, We have given whatever we were able to give, to make our brothers the Jews free, who were servants and prisoners of the nations: and would you now give up your brothers for a price, and are they to become our property? Then they said(possibly incomplete in the source)
⁹And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because of the shame which the nations may put on us?
¹⁰Even I and my servants have been taking interest for the money and the grain we have let them have. So now, let us give up this thing.
¹¹Give back to them this very day their fields, their vine-gardens, their olive-gardens, and their houses, as well as a hundredth part of the money and the grain and the wine and the oil which you have taken from them.
¹²Then they said, We will give them back, and take nothing for them; we will do as you say. Then I sent for the priests and made them take an oath that they would keep this agreement.
¹³And shaking out the folds of my robe, I said, So may God send out from his house and his work every man who does not keep this agreement; even so let him be sent out and made as nothing. And all the meeting of the people said, So be it, and gave praise t(possibly incomplete in the source)
¹⁴Now from the time when I was made ruler of the people in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year till the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, for twelve years, I and my servants have never taken the food which was the right of the ruler.
¹⁵But earlier rulers who were before me made the people responsible for their upkeep, and took from them bread and wine at the rate of forty shekels of silver; and even their servants were lords over the people: but I did not do so, because of the fear of(possibly incomplete in the source)
¹⁶And I kept on with the work of this wall, and we got no land for ourselves: and all my servants were helping with the work.
¹⁷And more than this, a hundred and fifty of the Jews and the rulers were guests at my table, in addition to those who came to us from the nations round about us.
¹⁸Now the food made ready for one day was one ox and six fat sheep, as well as fowls; and once in ten days a store of all sorts of wine: but all the same, I did not take the food to which the ruler had a right, because the people were crushed under a hard(possibly incomplete in the source)
¹⁹Keep in mind, O my God, for my good, all I have done for this people.

Public Domain