Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 5:3
[Some] also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
3. Some also ] The complaint in this verse is that among the poorer classes, those who had a little property were compelled to mortgage it in order to obtain the bare necessaries of life.
We have mortgaged ] R.V. We are mortgaging. The Hebrew verb expresses a state of things going on at the time.
our lands, vineyards, and houses ] R.V. our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. ‘Fields’ is better than ‘lands,’ which is too large and general a word. The three words refer to the corn-fields, vineyards, and dwellings, such as the poorer householders might possess.
For the tenacity with which the possession of house or land was retained in a family, cf. 1 Kings 21. In the Hebrew these three words stand emphatically at the head of the sentence corresponding to ‘our sons and our daughters’ in the previous verse.
that we might buy corn ] R.V. let us get corn. The words are the same as in the previous verse. They express not the purpose of the mortgage, but the resolve of the people to obtain food. By mortgaging their property they had lost the little capital they had. They had not the means to pay the interest on the mortgage as well as to obtain food for their families. The prospect before them was the final loss of property and starvation.
because of the dearth ] This might be rendered ‘in the famine.’ But the sense is hardly different. It was necessary to obtain food in the time of scarcity because of the dearth. Cf. ‘through the famine,’ Gen 41:36.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Neh 5:3-5
We have mortgaged our lands.
The miseries of debt
I. Mental unrest.
II. Social degradation.
III. Family ruin.
IV. A disregard of a Divine command: Thou shalt not steal. Application–
1. Christians should set the world an example.
2. Watch the beginnings of extravagance.
3. In small things as well as in greater act on Christian principle. (Homiletic Commentary.)
The blessing and curse of mortgages
The history of the mortgage would be the history of the domestic, social, financial, political, and ecclesiastical progress of all ages. It will be useful if I can intelligently and practically speak of the mortgage as a blessing and as a curse. There is much absurd and wholesale denunciation of borrowing money. If I should request all those who have never asked a loan to rise, there would not out of this audience be one get up unless it were some one who had acted so badly at the start that he knew no one would trust him. At the inception of nearly all enterprises, great or small, a loan is necessary. Years ago an Irish man landed with fifty cents in his pocket on the Battery, asked the loan of one dollar from an entire stranger, and now is among the New York princes. A mortgage is merely borrowed strength of others to help us in crises of individual or national life on the promise that we will pay them for the help rendered. But what is true in secularities is more true in ecclesiastical affairs. If churches had not been built till all the money could be raised, tens of thousands of our best churches would never have been built, and millions of those who are now Christians on earth or saints in heaven would never have been comforted or saved. The old Collinss line of steamers went into bankruptcy, but that does not change the fact that they transported hundreds of passengers in safety across the sea; and if all the churches in Christendom to-morrow went down under the thump of the sheriffs hammer, that would not hinder the fact that they have already transported thousands into the kingdom, and have done a stupendous good that all earth and hell can never undo. All consider it right to borrow for a secular institution. Is it not right to borrow for a religious? It is safer to borrow for the Church than for any other institution, because other institutions die, but a Church seldom. When the Israelites of my text wanted to rebuild their homes, and wanted to borrow money for that purpose, the mortgagers did well to let them have it, though I wish they had not asked twelve per cent. But after a while the mortgage spoken of in the text ceased to be a blessing, and became a plague. It had helped them through a domestic and ecclesiastical crisis, but now they could carry it no longer, and they cried out for rescue. If a blessing lies too long, it gets to be a curse. At the first moment the farmer can get the mortgage off his farm, and the merchant the mortgage off his merchandise, and the citizen the mortgage off his home, and the charitable institution the mortgage off its asylum, and the religious society the mortgage off its church, they had better do it. I have heard people argue the advantage of individual debts and national debts and Church debts; but I could not, while the argument was going on, control my risibilities. It is said that such debts keep the individual and the Church and the State busy trying to pay them. No doubt of it. So rheumatism keeps the patient busy with arnica, and neuralgia keeps the patient busy with hartshorn, and the cough with lozenges, and the toothache with lotions; but that is no argument in favour of rheumatism, or neuralgia, or coughs, or toothache. Better, if possible, get rid of these things, and be busy with something else. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Because of the dearth.] About the time of Zerubbabel, God had sent a judicial dearth upon the land, as we learn from Haggai, Hag 1:9, c., for the people it seems were more intent on building houses for themselves than on rebuilding the house of the Lord: “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it is come to little because of mine house that is waste; and ye run, every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brought forth; and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.” This dearth might have been continued, or its effects still felt; but it is more likely that there was a new dearth owing to the great number of people, for whose support the land that had been brought into cultivation was not sufficient.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Which might easily happen, both from the multitude of the people now in and near Jerusalem, and from their building work, which wholly took them up, and kept them from taking care of their own families, and from the expectation and dread of their enemies invasion, which hindered them from going abroad to fetch in provision, and the people round about from bringing it in to them; or from divers other causes.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Some also there were that said, we have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses,…. Made them over to others, put them into their hands as pledges for money received of them:
that we may buy corn; for the support of their families:
because of the dearth; or famine; which might be occasioned by their enemies lying in wait and intercepting all provisions that might be brought to them; for this seems not to be the famine spoken of in Hag 1:10 for that was some years before this, and for a reason which now was not.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(3) Because of the dearth.Not any particular famine, strictly speaking, but their present hunger. The past mortgages had straitened their resources.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Also there were Another class higher than those of Neh 5:2, for they were the owners of lands, vineyards, and houses. These had brought themselves into distress by mortgaging or pledging their property for food.
Because of the dearth Literally, in the famine. This famine or scarcity may have been occasioned, not by a pestilence or barrenness of their lands, but because so many of the people had been called from their homes to labour on the wall, and thus had failed to sow and reap their fields. The neighbouring nations, also, being hostile towards them, would be likely to hinder the importation of provisions from a distance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 5:3. Because of the dearth Not long before this, there had been a great scarcity for want of rain; which God thought proper to withhold, as a punishment for the people’s taking more care to build their own houses than his, as we read, Hag 1:9; Hag 1:15. At this time the rich had no compassion on their poor brethren, but forced them to part with all they had for bread; and now, which made them still more miserable, another dearth was come upon them, which might easily happen from the multitude of people employed in the repair of the wall; from the building-work, which hindered them from providing for their families some other way; and from the daily dread that they had of their enemies, which might keep them from going abroad for provision, and the country people from bringing it in. Houbigant renders the last part of the fourth verse thus: for the king’s tribute on our lands and vineyards.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Neh 5:3 [Some] also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
Ver. 3. We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, &c. ] Lands they had, but were little the better for them. Husbandry they had neglected to give attendance upon buildings; neither were they able to stock and store their grounds, and so are forced to part with them at an underrate price. This is many a poor man’s case among us, who yet are little pitied, or relieved, unless it be with a little mouth mercy, as in St James’s days, Jas 2:15-16 . Oppressors will be but as friends at a sneeze; the most you can get of them is, God bless you; like they are (many of them) to Darius, who prayed God to help Daniel, but sent him to the lions’ den.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
have mortgaged = are mortgaging.
the dearth. One of the thirteen famines (App-10) recorded in Scripture. See note on Gen 12:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
mortgaged: Gen 47:15-25, Lev 25:35-39, Deu 15:7
because: Mal 3:8-11
Reciprocal: Gen 47:19 – buy us Neh 5:11 – their lands
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 5:3. Because of the dearth Not long before this, there had been a great scarcity of corn through want of rain, which God had withheld as a punishment for the peoples taking more care to build their own houses than his temple, as we read Hag 1:9-11. And, in this time of scarcity the rich had no compassion on their poor brethren, who were forced to part with all they had for bread. And this dearth was now increased, from the multitude of the people in and near Jerusalem; from their work, which wholly took them up, and kept them from taking care of their families; and from the expectation of their enemies invasion, which hindered them from going abroad to fetch provision, and the people round about from bringing it to them.