Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 5:4
There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, [and that upon] our lands and vineyards.
4. Yet a third class is mentioned, who had been compelled to borrow in order to pay the taxes and, not having the means to pay their creditors, sold their children as slaves.
we have borrowed for the king’s tribute ] One special cause of distress seems to have been the heaviness of the royal taxes. Jews who were poor to start with and impoverished by recent circumstances, found themselves under the necessity of borrowing in order to pay the tribute levied by the Persian king from his foreign subjects. See on ‘tribute’ note on Ezr 4:13; Ezr 4:20; Ezr 6:8; Ezr 7:24. On the severity of this taxation in the Persian Empire see Neh 9:37.
and that upon our lands and vineyards ] R.V. upon our fields and vineyards. The poor people, in order to pay the tax, borrowed money upon the security of their small holdings. In this way a considerable portion of the property of the poorer classes had passed into the hands of the wealthy money-lenders, who exacted high usury ( Neh 5:11), and had no compunction in plying their trade, and visiting default of payment with seizure of a fellow-countryman’s few acres of field and vineyard. At a time when distress was due to the presence of a common foe, this want of generosity and patriotism excited the indignation of the working classes. Even in the more favourable cases, the necessity of paying the interest upon the mortgages deprived the poor Jew of any profits from his holding.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The kings tribute – The tax payable to the Persian monarch (compare Ezr 4:13; Est 10:1). In ancient times, heavy taxation was often productive of debt and distress.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. We have borrowed money] This should be read, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute on our lands and vineyards. They had a tax to pay to the Persian king in token of their subjection to him, and though it is not likely it was heavy, yet they were not able to pay it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The kings tribute was laid upon them all. See Ezr 4:13; 7:24
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
There were also that said,…. Who though they were able to buy corn for their families without mortgaging their estates: yet, say they,
we have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards; for though the priests, Levites, and Nethinims, were exempted from it, yet not the people in common; and some of these were so poor, that they could not pay it without borrowing upon their estates, and paying large usury for it, see Ezr 6:8
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) We have borrowed money for the kings tribute.Literally, we have made our fields and vineyards answerable for the payment of the Persian tribute. They had pledged the coming produce.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute These represent a third class, whose lands and vineyards seem to have afforded them food for their personal wants, but not money with which to pay the taxes assessed upon them. The princes and wealthier men among the Jews took advantage of this impoverishment of their poorer brethren to exact exorbitant and unlawful interest upon the money they loaned them. Neh 5:7. This was expressly forbidden in the law. Exo 22:25; Deu 23:19. But to obtain this money these persons also had to mortgage or pledge their lands and vineyards. These last two nouns are to be construed, grammatically, as accusatives after borrowed, which verb has not only the sense of borrowing something, but also of pledging something for that which is borrowed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 5:4 There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, [and that upon] our lands and vineyards.
Ver. 4. There were also that said ] Here was a third complaint to good Nehemiah; to whom whosoever lamented were sure to have redress and remedy, he did not serve these poor people as that merciless bishop of Mentz, in Germany, did; who, to rid his hands of them in a time of famine, in horreo conclusos iussit concremari, shut them up all together in a barn, and there burnt them (Hatto, Archiep. Mogunt. A. D. 923). He was afterwards eaten to death by rats, non sine maxima divinae vindictae suspicione, saith mine author, by a just hand of God upon him for his cruelty to those poor, whom he would not relieve with his grain, but let the rats eat it; and of whom he said, when they were burning in his barn, that they cried like a company of rats.
We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute] They did not deny payment, and rise up in arms, making poverty their captain, as the Suffolk men did here in Henry VIII’s time. Neither did they answer the king of Persia’s officers, as the men of Andros once did Themistocles. He, being sent by the Athenians to them for tribute, told them that he came unto them on that errand, accompanied with two goddesses, Eloquence, to persuade, and Violence, to enforce them. Their answer was, that they also had on their side two goddesses as strong; Necessity, for they had it not, and Impossibility, for they knew not how to raise it (Plutarch). These men pawn their lands to pay tribute; but it went to their hearts, and caused this complaint.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the king’s tribute: Neh 9:37, Deu 28:47, Deu 28:48, Jos 16:10, 1Ki 9:21, Ezr 4:13, Ezr 4:20
Reciprocal: Exo 22:14 – borrow Neh 5:11 – their lands Pro 22:7 – the borrower Lam 1:1 – how is Mat 22:17 – is Luk 20:22 – General Joh 8:33 – and were Rom 13:6 – pay Rev 18:13 – slaves
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 5:4. We have borrowed money for the kings tribute Which was laid upon them all, Ezr 4:13; Ezr 7:24. Houbigant renders the last part of this verse, for the kings tribute on our lands and vineyards.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:4 There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s {c} tribute, [and that upon] our lands and vineyards.
(c) To pay our tribute to the king of the Persians, which was exacted yearly from us.