1Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. 2For there were those who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many: let us get grain, that we may eat and live. 3Some also there were who said, We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses: let us get grain, because of the famine. 4There were also those who said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute upon our fields and our vineyards. 5Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children: and, look, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already: neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards. 6And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. 7Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, You exact usury, every one from his brother. And I held a great assembly against them. 8And I said to them, We according to our ability have redeemed our brothers the Jews, who were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us? Then they were silent, and could not find a word. 9Also I said, The thing that you do is not good: ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies? 10And I likewise, my brothers and my servants, are lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury. 11Please restore to them, even this day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you exact from them. 12Then they said, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so we will do, even as you say. Then I called the priests, and took an oath from them, that they would do according to this promise. 13Also I shook out my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, who does not perform this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praised Yehovah. And the people did according to this promise. 14Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor. 15But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; indeed, even their servants bore rule over the people: but I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16Indeed, I also continued in the work of this wall, nor did we buy any land: and all my servants were gathered there to the work. 17Moreover there were at my table, of the Jews and the rulers, a hundred and fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were all around us. 18Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days an abundance of all sorts of wine: yet for all this I did not demand the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people. 19Remember to me, O my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.