5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. 5:2 There were those who said, “We with our sons and daughters are many. We must get¹ grain in order to eat and continue living.” 5:3 There were others who said, “We are putting up as collateral our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in order to get grain during the famine.” 5:4 Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes² on our fields and our vineyards. 5:5 And now, though we are of the same flesh and blood as our brethren,³ and our children are just like their children,⁴ still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to bondage. Some of our daughters have been subjected to bondage, while we are without power to help,⁵ since our fields and vineyards belong to other people.”

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. 5:7 I carefully considered these things⁶ and then registered a complaint with the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is placing a burden of debt on his brethren.”⁷ Because of them I called for⁸ a great assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “We have bought back our Jewish brethren who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your brethren, so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

5:9 Then I⁹ said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not conduct¹⁰ yourselves in the fear of our God, so as to not come under the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies? 5:10 Even I and my brethren and my associates¹¹ are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this other burden! 5:11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the hundredth¹² part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you are exacting from them.”

5:12 They replied, “We will return these things,¹³ and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made them swear to do what had been agreed on.¹⁴ 5:13 I also shook out my garment,¹⁵ and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out¹⁶ this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!,” and they praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had agreed.¹⁷

5:14 From the day that I was appointed¹⁸ governor¹⁹ in the land of Judah, that is, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king—twelve years in all—neither I nor my brethren ate the food allotted to the governor.²⁰ 5:15 But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken from them food and wine, in addition to²¹ forty shekels of silver. Their associates were domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God. 5:16 I gave myself to this work on the wall, without even purchasing²² a field. All my associates were gathered there for the work.

5:17 There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me,²³ in addition to those who came to us from the Gentiles. 5:18 Every day there were readied for me one ox, six select sheep, and some birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. With this I did not require the food allotted to the governor, for the work was demanding on this people.

5:19 Please remember me for good, O my God, for all that I have done for this people.