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Nehemiah 5:3
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Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

1 And there was a great aoutcry of the people and their wives against their bJewish brethren.  
2 For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”
3 There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”
4 There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards.
5 Yet now aour flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we bare forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”  
6 And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.
7 After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, a“Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.” So I2 called a great assembly against them.  
Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
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Nehemiah 5:3

Because of the dearth - About the time of Zerubbabel, God had sent a judicial dearth upon the land, as we learn from Haggai, Haggai 1:9, etc., for the people it seems were more intent on building houses for themselves than on rebuilding the house of the Lord: "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it is come to little; because of mine house that is waste; and ye run, every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brought forth; and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands." This dearth might have been continued, or its effects still felt; but it is more likely that there was a new dearth owing to the great number of people, for whose support the land that had been brought into cultivation was not sufficient.


 
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