³ There were others who were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, vineyards, and houses so that we can acquire grain during the famine.” ⁴ There were others who were saying, “We borrowed money to pay the royal tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵ Although our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children are as good as their children, we must subject our sons and our daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we have no power to prevent it, since our fields and vineyards belong to others.”