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5 Around this same time, many of the men and their wives complained bitterly about what their fellow Jews were doing to them.
2 Some of them began, “We have many children. We need to get a lot of food to feed them all.”
3 Others added, “We have had to promise to give someone our fields, vineyards, and houses if we do not pay back the money he has loaned us. We had to borrow the money to buy food during this time when food is scarce.”
4 Still others said, “We have had to borrow money to pay the taxes that the king commanded us to pay on our fields and our vineyards. 5 This is how bad things have gotten. We are selling our children into slavery. In fact, we have even sold some of our daughters. Our creditors took the fields and vineyards we pledged as security for loans, so there was nothing else we could do. But we are Jews, just like the people who are doing these things to us!”
6 I got very angry when I heard these things that they were complaining about. 7 I thought hard about what to do. Then I brought charges against the leading citizens and the city officials. I called together a large group of people to hear the charges against them. I told these leaders, “You are charging interest on loans to your fellow Jews. You know that is forbidden in the Law of Moses.”
8 I said to them, “Whenever our fellow Jews have had to sell themselves into slavery to people from other nations, to the best of our ability we have been buying them back. But you are actually selling your fellow Jews into slavery to get back the money they owe you. These are some of the very people we have been buying back!” They knew that these charges were true, so there was absolutely nothing they could say in response.
9 Then I said to them, “What you are doing is wrong! You certainly ought to obey God and do what is right! Otherwise, our enemies will mock us even more. 10 I myself, my relatives, and my servants have been lending money and grain to anyone in need without charging interest. All of us should stop charging interest on loans. 11 Give them back their fields, vineyards, olive orchards, and houses. Do it right away! And pay back the 12% annual interest you have been collecting on the money, grain, wine, and olive oil that you have lent them.”
12 These leaders replied, “Yes, we will do what you say. We will give back their fields, vineyards, olive orchards, and houses. And we will stop charging them interest.”
Then I called the priests, and I made the leaders swear to God in front of them that they would do what they had promised. 13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said to them, “In this same way, may God fling anyone who does not keep this oath away from everything he owns. Yes, may that person lose everything!”
Then everyone who was there said, “We agree!” And they praised Yahweh. After that none of the Jews took houses or fields to guarantee loans, and none of them charged interest any more.
14 Here is something else I did to help the people. Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, had appointed me to be the governor of the province of Judah during the twentieth year of his reign. During the twelve years from the time that he appointed me until the thirty-second year of his reign, I did not accept the governor’s food allowance, and I did not use it to feed my relatives. I knew that the people were poor and could not afford to pay for it. 15 The governors before me had made life very difficult for the people. They had demanded that the people supply them with bread and wine and forty silver shekels every day. Even their servants oppressed the people. But I respected and honored God, and so I did not oppress them. 16 I devoted myself to the work of rebuilding the wall. My relatives and I did not buy any property, even though we could have gotten it cheaply because the poor were so desperate. I also assigned all of my servants to work on the wall.
17 As governor, I was responsible for feeding 150 Jewish leaders and city officials. I also entertained Jewish visitors who came from nearby countries. 18 Each day I told my servants to prepare for us one ox, six good sheep, and various kinds of poultry. I paid for these myself. Every ten days I also brought in an abundant supply of various kinds of wine. But I knew that the people were struggling to survive, and so I paid for all of these things at my own expense. I did not accept the governor’s food allowance.
19 My God, think of me, and reward me for all the good that I have done for the people of Judah.