Dear RTB’ers,
Usury, the exacting of excessive interest. My Study Bible had a section title at the beginning of this chapter, “Usury abolished”. Our ESV translation speaks only of “interest” (vv. 7, 10), but it is clear from the context that the returns granted to the wealthy were exorbitant – with the poor going hungry, losing their lands, even being enslaved. Nehemiah stepped in, with results similar to his encouragement toward work on the walls. Him speaking: Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” (vv. 11-12a)
So I ask myself, is it possible that these wealthy people were unaware of the harshness that they were imposing on the poor, that they were blind to the harm caused by their behavior, that only when it was pointed out to them by Nehemiah that they could see their wrongdoing? Then I look at the colonization of African, Asian and American lands by European powers and I see wealth transfers and people impoverished or enslaved. Then I look again at today, at how wealthy we are up against the poverty that exists in “third-world” countries. What am I, what are we doing about it? God help us!
Blessings.
Fred