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JULY 27
DAY 26:Why did Nehemiah denounce the nobles and rulers?
In Nehemiah 5:1–5,the people were fatigued with hard labor,drained by the relentless harass-
ment of enemies, poor and lacking the necessities of life, lacking tax money and borrowing for it,
and working on the wall in the city rather than getting food from the country. On top of this came
complaints against the terrible exploitation and extortion by the rich Jews who would not help,but
forced people to sell their homes and children,while having no ability to redeem them back.Under
normal conditions, the law offered the hope of releasing these young people through the remis-
sion of debts which occurred every 7 years or in the 50th year of Jubilee (Lev. 25). The custom of
redemption made it possible to “buy back”the enslaved individual at almost any time,but the des-
perate financial situation of those times made that appear impossible.
So Nehemiah “rebuked the nobles and rulers”(v.7).They had become the enemy from within.
“Exacting usury.”Usury can refer to normal interest or it can signify excessive interest.According to
Mosaic Law, the Jews were forbidden to take interest from their brothers on the loan of money,
food, or anything else. If the person was destitute, they should consider it a gift. If they could pay it
back later, it was to be without interest (Lev. 25:36,37; Deut. 23:19,20). Such generosity marked the
godly (Ps. 15:5; Jer. 15:10; Prov. 28:8). Interest could be taken from foreigners (v. 20). Interest loans
were known to exceed 50 percent at times in ancient nations. Such usury took advantage of peo-
ple’s desperation and was virtually impossible to repay, consuming their entire family assets and
reducing the debtors to permanent slavery.
Nehemiah denounced with just severity the evil conduct of selling a brother by means of
usury. He contrasted it with his own action of redeeming with his own money some of the Jewish
exiles, who through debt had lost their freedom in Babylon (v. 8). Nehemiah set the example again
by making loans, but not in exacting usury (v. 10).To remedy the evil that they had brought, those
guilty of usury were to return the property they had confiscated from those who couldn’t pay the
loans back, as well as returning the interest they had charged (v. 11).

July 27
6:5 open letter. Official letters were typically
rolled up and sealed with an official signet by
Nehemiah 6:1–7:73
the letter’s sender or one of his assisting offi-
Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, cials. An open or unsealed letter was not only
6 Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our ene- a sign of disrespect and open criticism,but also
mies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that suggested the information therein was public
there were no breaks left in it (though at that knowledge. The goal of this document was to
time I had not hung the doors in the gates), intimidate Nehemiah into stopping the work.
2 that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying,
“Come, let us meet together among the vil- saying, “There is a king in Judah!” Now
lages in the plain of Ono.” But they thought to these matters will be reported to the
do me harm. king. So come, therefore, and let us
3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I consult together.
am doing a great work, so that I cannot come
8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things
down. Why should the work cease while I
leave it and go down to you?” as you say are being done, but you invent
4 But they sent me this message four times, them in your own heart.”
9 For they all were trying to make us afraid,
and I answered them in the same manner.
5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the
before, the fifth time, with an open letter in work, and it will not be done.”
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his hand. In it was written: Now therefore, O God, strengthen my
hands.
It is reported among the nations, and 10 Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah
Geshem says, that you and the Jews the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who
plan to rebel; therefore, according to was a secret informer; and he said, “Let us meet
these rumors, you are rebuilding the together in the house of God, within the temple,
wall, that you may be their king. And and let us close the doors of the temple, for they
7
you have also appointed prophets to are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will
proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, come to kill you.”
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