There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”
Parallel translations
- WEB There were also some that said, “We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.”
- KJV Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.
- BSB Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
- NASB And there were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses so that we might get grain because of the famine.”
- NLT Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes to get food during the famine.”
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
Others have mortgaged their fields, vineyards, and homes to buy food during famine. Survival is costing them their land and livelihood.
Overview
To eat, families pledge their very means of future provision, sinking deeper into debt. The famine compounds the burden of rebuilding the wall, which kept many from tending their fields. This mounting desperation frames the injustice Nehemiah will confront, where the strong profited from the weak in a time of shared crisis.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Lev 25:35–39“‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you; then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident.
- Mal 3:8–11Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.
- Deut 15:7If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;
- Gen 47:15–25When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 5:3 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.