Nehemiah 5:3-5

New Catholic Bible

³ Others asserted that they were forced to mortgage their fields, their vineyards, and their houses in order to survive.

⁴ Furthermore, there were those who said: “We are being forced to borrow money on our fields and vineyards in order to pay the king’s tax. ⁵ And although our flesh is identical to that of our kinsmen and our children are as good as theirs, we will have to subject our sons and daughters into slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, and our fields and our vineyards now belong to others.”