What Does Nehemiah 5:10 Mean?
I likewise, with my brothers and my servants, am lending them silver and grain. Let us, please, let go of this load.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury.THE KEY
The Hebrew behind “exact” names an ongoing creditor relationship, and the verse asks the whole group, including the speaker, to leave it behind.
THE MEANING
When your resources give you power over someone else’s need, this verse brings your own part into view: “I likewise” includes the speaker among those lending. The request to leave off the usury makes ending that burden a shared possibility.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that financial harm belongs only to outsiders: the speaker includes himself, his brothers, and his servants in the lending practice.
THE ROOT
נֹשִׁים
nōšîm
GROWS FROM
נשה
n-sh-h
To lend on interest or act as a creditor.
“am lending them silver and grain” in this verse is nōšîm. The word translated “exact” describes acting as a creditor, making the speaker’s position visible before the verse names what must end. “I likewise” places the people asking for change inside the same arrangement.
ALSO GROWS
nāšāh: To lend on interest or act as a creditor.
נָשָׁה
This verbal form shows the continuing practice beneath the speaker’s role.
nōšeh: A person who lends on interest.
נֹשֶׁה
This related form names the creditor as a participant in the relationship the verse asks to leave.
נַעַזְבָה־נָּא
naʿazvā-nnā
GROWS FROM
עזב
To leave, abandon, or forsake.
“let go of” in this verse is naʿazvā-nnā. The request uses the language of leaving something behind. The usury is treated as an attachment the group can abandon, not as an unavoidable feature of lending.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzav: To leave or forsake.
עָזַב
The same root names the act the group is asked to take toward the usury.
ʿazuvah: Left behind or abandoned.
עֲזוּבָה
This related form shows the other side of the root: what is left is no longer held in place.
THE PATTERN
A community’s provision becomes a burden when another’s need is used to secure interest, and the burden can be named and relinquished.
If you lend silver to any of my people who is bent low beside you, you shall not be to him as one who bites, nor lay the bite upon him.Take no bite from him, nor growth; but stand in awe of your God, that your brother may live with you.But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Highest, for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.THE THREAD
If you lend silver to any of my people who is bent low beside you, you shall not be to him as one who bites, nor lay the bite upon him.The Hebrew word translated “usurer” here, נֹשֶׁה (nōšeh, creditor), shares the creditor root behind “might exact” in Nehemiah. The earlier verse makes the role visible; Nehemiah’s appeal includes the speaker in that role and calls the group to leave the usury behind.
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