◄ Nehemiah 5:2 ►
Verse  (Click for Chapter)
Good News Translation
Some said, "We have large families, we need grain to keep us alive."

New Revised Standard Version
For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; we must get grain, so that we may eat and stay alive.”

Contemporary English Version
and said, "We have large families, and it takes a lot of grain merely to keep us alive."

New American Bible
Some said: “We are forced to pawn our sons and daughters in order to get grain to eat that we may live.”

Douay-Rheims Bible
And there were some that said: Our sons and our daughters are very many: let us take up corn for the price of them, and let us eat and live.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And there were some that said: Our sons and our daughters are very many: let us take up corn for the price of them, and let us eat and live.

We, our sons

Psalm 127:3-5 Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb. . . .

Psalm 128:2-4 For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee. . . .

Malachi 2:2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord of hosts: I will send poverty upon you, and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart.

we take up corn

Genesis 41:57 And all provinces came into Egypt, to buy food, and to seek some relief of their want.

Genesis 42:2 I have heard that wheat is sold in Egypt: Go ye down, and buy us necessaries, that we may live, and not be consumed with want.

Genesis 43:8 And Juda said to his father: Send the boy with me, that we may set forward, and may live: lest both we and our children perish.

Context
Nehemiah Defends the Oppressed
1Now there was a great cry of the people, and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. 2And there were some that said: Our sons and our daughters are very many: let us take up corn for the price of them, and let us eat and live.3And there were some that said: Let us mortgage our lands, and our vineyards, and our houses, and let us take corn because of the famine.…
Cross References
Deuteronomy 23:19
Thou shalt not lend to thy brother money to usury, nor corn, nor any other thing:

2 Kings 4:1
Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets, cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him.

Nehemiah 5:3
And there were some that said: Let us mortgage our lands, and our vineyards, and our houses, and let us take corn because of the famine.

Haggai 1:6
You have sowed much, and brought in little: you have eaten, but have not had enough: you have drunk, but have not been filled with drink: you have clothed yourselves, but have not been warmed: and he that hath earned wages, put them into a bag with holes.

Nehemiah 5:1
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