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NehemiahChapter 5

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Then a great outcry arose from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
Some were saying, "With our sons and daughters we are many; we must get grain so we can eat and stay alive."
Others were saying, "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain during the famine."
And still others were saying, "We have borrowed money against our fields and vineyards to pay the king's tax.
Now our flesh is the same as the flesh of our brothers, our children the same as theirs, yet here we are forcing our sons and daughters into slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, and we are powerless to act, for our fields and vineyards belong to others.
When I heard their outcry and these complaints, I was furious.
After thinking it over, I brought charges against the nobles and officials. I told them, "You are exacting interest from your own brothers!" And I called a great assembly to deal with them.
I said to them, "As far as we were able, we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the nations. And now you are selling your own brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!" They said nothing, for they could find no answer.
So I continued, "What you are doing is not right. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to avoid the taunts of the nations, our enemies?
I myself, along with my brothers and my men, have been lending the people money and grain. Let us stop charging interest!
Give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, and also the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you have exacted from them."
They answered, "We will give it back, and we will demand nothing more from them. We will do just as you say." Then I summoned the priests and made them take an oath to keep this promise.
I also shook out the fold of my robe and said, "So may God shake out of his house and his property every man who does not keep this promise. May he be shaken out and left empty!" The whole assembly said, "Amen," and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
Moreover, from the day I was appointed governor in the land of Judah—from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years in all—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.
The earlier governors, my predecessors, had laid a heavy burden on the people, taking food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But I did not act that way, because I feared God.
What is more, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. We bought no land, and all my men were gathered there for the work.
Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, along with those who came to us from the surrounding nations.
Each day one ox, six choice sheep, and poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine. Yet in spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the burden on this people was heavy.
Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for this people.
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