5:1  Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

5:2  For those who said, "We, our sons and our daughters have become many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live."

5:3  Others said, "We have mortgaged our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine."

5:4  Also some said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards.

5:5  "Now our flesh resembles the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children Yet behold, we have forced our sons and our daughters to become slaves, and some of our daughters have become forced into bondage already, and we feel helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others."

5:6  Then I felt very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words.

5:7  I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, "You have exacted usury, each from his brother!" Therefore, I held a great assembly against them.

5:8  I said to them, "We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who had become sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may become sold to us?" Then they grew silent and could not find a word to say.

5:9  Again I said, "The thing which you do does not seem good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

5:10  "And likewise I, my brothers and my servants have lent them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this usury.

5:11  "Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you have extracted from them."

5:12  Then they said, "We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say" So I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.

5:13  I also shook out the front of my garment and said, "Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he become shaken out and emptied " And all the assembly said, "Amen!" And they praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise.

5:14  Moreover, from the day that I received an appointment to serve as their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governor's food allowance.

5:15  But the former governors who had served before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God.

5:16  I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants gathered there for the work.

5:17  Moreover, there stood at my table one hundred and fifty Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that lived around us.

5:18  Now that which we prepared for each day consisted of one ox and six choice sheep, also birds people prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine people furnished in abundance Yet for all this I did not demand the governor's food allowance, because the servitude fell heavy on this people.

5:19  Remember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.