Nehemiah 5:3-5

Common English Bible

³ Others said, “We have to mortgage our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in order to get grain during the famine.”

⁴ Still others said, “We have had to borrow money against our fields and vineyards in order to pay the king’s tax.”

⁵ “We are of the same flesh and blood as our kin, and our children are the same as theirs. Yet we are just about to force our sons and daughters into slavery, and some of our daughters are already slaves! There is nothing we can do since our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”