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Others said, We have borrowed money on our fields and vineyards to pay the [Persian] king’s heavy tax.

Although our flesh is the same as that of our brethren and our children are as theirs, yet we are forced to sell our children as slaves; some of our daughters have already been thus sold, and we are powerless to redeem them, for others have our lands and vineyards.

I [Nehemiah] was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

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Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax(A) on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood(B) as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.(C) Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”(D)

When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.

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