Nehemiah 5:3-5

International Standard Version

³ Others were saying, “We’re having to mortgage our fields, our vineyards, and our homes so we can buy grain during this famine.”

⁴ Still others were saying “We’ve borrowed money against our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s taxes. ⁵ Now our bodies are no different than the bodies of our relatives, and our children are like their children. Nevertheless, we’re about to force our sons and daughters into slavery, and some of our daughters are already in bondage. It’s beyond our power to do anything about it, because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”