And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes.
Parallel translations
- WEB There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.
- KJV There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.
- BSB Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.
- NKJV There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards.
- NASB There also were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.
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
Still others have borrowed money against their fields and vineyards to pay the king's tax. Imperial tribute adds to their crushing debt.
Overview
The Persian king's required tribute forces families to mortgage their land merely to pay taxes. Layered upon famine and food costs, this burden pushes them toward losing everything. The verse exposes how external obligations and internal exploitation together threatened to destroy the inheritance God had given His people in the land.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezra 4:13Be it known now to the king that if this city is built and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and in the end it will be hurtful to the kings.
- Ezra 4:20There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who have ruled over all the country beyond the River; and tribute, custom, and toll, was paid to them.
- 1 Kgs 9:21their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day.
- Deut 28:47–48Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
- Ezra 7:24Also we inform you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll, on any of the priests, Levites, singers, porters, temple servants, or laborers of this house of God.
- Josh 16:10They didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell in the territory of Ephraim to this day, and have become servants to do forced labor.
- Neh 9:37It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. Also they have power over our bodies and over our livestock, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
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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 5:4 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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