Reading for December 10th

Read Nehemiah 5.1-13. In 5.1-13: Economic crisis and Nehemiah's solutions. Told in a first-person fashion, this section recounts a grave economic crisis made worse by the profiteering of some members of the community. Faced with a possible revolt, Nehemiah forcefully takes dramatic steps to allevate the crisis. In verse 1: Now there was a great outcry: The implication of the placement of this account is that the work of rebuilding was continuing when the crisis reached its potential breaking point. Three differnt issues are raised by the crowd, all the result of a periodic famine (v. 3). The first issue is the difficulty getting grain for food (v. 2); the second, the use of fields as collateral to obtain loans for purchasing grain (v. 4); and most seriously, the use of the labor of children as collateral on borrowing money to pay the king's tax (v. 5). Normally taxes were paid in grains in the Persian empire, but when grain was not available; taxes could be paid in the monetary equivalent (usually in terms of weight, such as as "so many mina of silver") of the amount of grain owned. In a famine, as the cost of grain escatlated, so would the relative value of the taxes owed to the empire. Also, famine was usually triggered by drought, making it difficult for farmers to raise the necessary crop yield to repay a debt. Brokers could loan grains or silver in return for receiving pledges on the future yeilds of the land or on the available labor in the family group. If the loan was not repaid in the time frame agreed to, the broker could sieze all the yield of a given crop, or take mmbers of the family into indentured servitude, often exacting interest on the remaining balance due until the whole loan plus accured interest was repaid. Nehemiah attampts to address this situation by first calling a great assembly (v. 7), announcing the release of new resources intothemarkets (v. 10). He also requires that productive lands be returned to the debtors so that they will have some means of raising capital to make the debt good ((v. 11). The call to stop this taking of interest (v. 10) is most likely a reference to the additional interest on the loan when the original repayment schedule cannot be met. This seems to be what the brokers agree to in pledging they will demand nothing more from them (v. 12). In verse 13; May God shake out everyone from the house and from property: having forced the brokers to take a solemn oath before the priests (v. 12), Nehemiah engages in a symbolic action, placing a curse on all who violate the pledge. The brokers, being people of means, would take seriously the possibility of losing their wealth. The peole did as they promised suggests Nehemiah's solution worked. Comments or Questions..