LESSON 20
LESSON 20 NEHEMIAH 5 : 1 – 6 : 19
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. —Nehemiah 6:15
Having successfully dealt with overt, external opposition to the rebuilding project, Nehemiah then faced opposition from within the community in the form of charging interest on loans. This threatened to cause disunity and disruption in the rebuilding of the wall. Angered by it, Nehemiah dealt decisively with this situation, but oppo- sition and attempts to derail the building project continued outside the community with indirect efforts to make him fearful. Remarkably, the wall was completed just 52 days after the work started, and the enemies of Israel rightly perceived that the Jews finished their work with the help of God.
READ THE WORD Pray. Take a moment to pray, asking the Lord to prepare your heart and teach you.
Nehemiah 5:1–6:19 5 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daugh- ters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” 3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5 Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.” 6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them 8 and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say. 9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? 10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 11 Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” 12 Then they said, “We will restore these and
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