And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.
- BSB About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
- NKJV And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren.
- NASB Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.
- NLT About this time some of the men and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow Jews.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A great outcry arises among the poorer Jews against their wealthier fellow Jews. Internal injustice now threatens the community from within.
Overview
With the external threat momentarily checked, a new crisis erupts: economic oppression among God's own people. The "great cry" recalls Israel's cry under Egyptian bondage, signaling serious injustice. This shows that sin within the covenant community can be as dangerous as enemies outside it, and it sets up Nehemiah's call to reform.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
- Deut 15:7–11If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
- Job 31:38–39If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
- Jas 5:4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
- Exod 3:7And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
- Luke 18:7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
- 1 Cor 6:6–8But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
- Exod 22:25–27If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.
- Job 34:28So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted.
- Acts 7:26And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
- Lev 25:35–37And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.
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Christ at the center
The rebuilt walls and renewed covenant community foreshadow the greater builder who gathers and secures a people for God, the one who declares 'I will build my church.'
How Nehemiah 5:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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