Nehemiah 5:7

3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

4 Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.

5 We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

6 When I heard their outcry and these complaints, I became extremely angry,

7 and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!” So I called a large assembly against them

8 and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.

9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies?

10 I, as well as my brothers and my servants, have been lending the people money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury.

11 Please restore to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and oil that you have been assessing them.”

Read all of Nehemiah 5