For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”
Parallel Translations
-
For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”
-
For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live.
-
For there were that said: 'We, our sons and our daughters, are many; let us get for them corn, that we may eat and live.'
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Nehemiah 5:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 128:2-4 For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you. Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house, your children like olive plants around your table. Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears Yahweh.
- Malachi 2:2 If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says Yahweh of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.
- Genesis 41:57 All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
- Genesis 42:2 He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”
- Genesis 43:8 Judah said to Israel, his father, “Send the boy with me, and we’ll get up and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones.
- Psalms 127:3-5 Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This is the complaint of the people, showing to…
This is the complaint of the people, showing to what extremity they were brought unto.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Neh 5:2 For there were that said, We, our…
Neh 5:2 For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, [are] many: therefore we take up corn [for them], that we may eat, and live.
Ver. 2. We, our sons, and our daughters are many] That is a mercy, had we but keeping for them. Their wives were very fruitful; sed luctuosa faecunditate (as Jerome saith of Laeta); for they had more mouths than meat for them. Tho young children asked for bread, and no man brake it unto them, Lam 4:4.
Read full note →
Therefore we take up corn for them] Grain upon use, to keep us from starving; and that by pawning or selling our dear children to the rich creditors for servants; till we can redeem them, which we are never like to do, Neh 5:5.
That we may eat and live] Merely to keep us alive; for else we would never have made our poor children bondslaves. But Necessitas durum telum, hunger is so pinching a pain, that a woman will eat her own child, as in the siege of Jerusalem, Samaria, Saguntum; yea, a man his own flesh, rather than die with hunger. Hitherto the poorest sort. Follows now another cry.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We, our sons, and our daughters, are many; which…
We, our sons, and our daughters, are many; which is in itself a blessing, but to us is turned into a curse.
We take up corn for them, i.e. we are forced by our and their necessities to take up corn, to wit, upon their own unreasonable terms, as is here implied, and plainly expressed in the following relation. Others, Let us take up, &c., i.e. seeing we do the public work, let provision be made for us and our children out of the public stock. But this is no petition, but a complaint, as will appear.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For there were that said, we, our sons, and…
For there were that said, we, our sons, and our daughters, are many,.... Not that they complained of the number of their children, for a numerous offspring was always reckoned a blessing with the Jews; but this they observed to show that their families, being large, required a considerable quantity of food to support them:
therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat and live; that is, they were obliged to take it at an exorbitant price, which is the thing complained of; or otherwise they must starve, the rich taking the advantage of their poverty and present dearth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Many - Which is in itself a blessing, but…
Many - Which is in itself a blessing, but to us is turned into a curse. Take up - We are forced to take up corn, upon unreasonable terms.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. We, our sons, and our daughters, are…
Verse 2. We, our sons, and our daughters, are many] Our families are larger than we can provide for; we are obliged to go in debt; and our richer brethren take advantage of our necessitous situation, and oppress us. The details which are given in the next verse are sufficiently plain.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Neh 5:2. We, our sons, and our daughters, are…
Neh 5:2. We, our sons, and our daughters, are many — Which indeed is in itself a blessing, but to us is turned into a curse. The families that were most necessitous were most numerous. Those who have great families and little substance must learn to live by faith in God’s providence and promises: and those who have little families and great substance must make their abundance a supply for the wants of others. We take up corn for them, that we may eat and live — That is, we are compelled by our and their necessities to take up corn on unreasonable terms. Or, the sense of the words may be, Where, or how, shall we get corn, that we may eat and live?
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Are many - A slight emendation brings this verse…
Are many - A slight emendation brings this verse into exact parallelism with the next, and gives the sense - “We have pledged our sons and our daughters, that we might get corn, and eat and live.” Compare Neh 5:5.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Very. Syriac, "and our brethren are too numerous" to…
Very. Syriac, "and our brethren are too numerous" to find meat. --- For, &c. Hebrew, Septuagint, &c., "by force." (Abenezra, &c.) --- Yet most people explain it in the sense of the Vulgate. It was permitted to sell children in extreme distress, Exodus xxi. 7. (Grotius) (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. There were that said — These seem to…
2. There were that said — These seem to have been persons who held about the civil status of the Roman proletaries, who owned no property, but served the state with their children, and procured a livelihood by labouring for others. These were the lowest class of citizens.
Our sons, and our daughters, are many — That which was to the true Israelite the highest gratification and pleasure — a pledge that Jehovah’s blessing was with him — was in this case the occasion of oppression and sorrow.
Read full note →
We take up corn for them — The words for them should be omitted. To take up corn, means to receive or obtain it, not by violence, but by some specific arrangement with the wealthier classes who had corn to sell. How these poorer classes obtained their corn is not said, but the most natural inference is, (compare Neh_5:5; Neh_5:8,) that they sold themselves and their children as bond-servants to the richer Jews, according to the provisions of the law. Exo_21:7; Lev_25:39.
That we may eat, and live — Better, thought they, are food and life in bondage, than starvation and death in freedom.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. For there were that said] This and the…
2. For there were that said] This and the two following verses describe the people’s complaint. Their misfortunes were brought to a climax by the condition of hostilities, which put an end to trade and threatened town and country with ruin. The class referred to in this verse are the labourers, who depended upon wages.
We … are many] The number of the poorer population in comparison with the wealthy was probably disproportionately large. The community since the return under Zerubbabel had never been prosperous. It had suffered much from the ill-treatment of the neighbouring peoples, more especially of the Samaritans. The pressure of the work on the wall, coupled with the expectation of attack, brought matters to a crisis. It was impossible to obtain regular employment, and prices had gone up. They had no property like those mentioned in Neh_5:3-4, upon the security of which they could borrow money.
Read full note →
therefore we take up corn for them &c.] R.V. let us get corn &c. The words in the A.V. are ambiguous. The clause expresses the wish. It is the utterance of the poor who have grown desperate. They demand food for themselves and their families. They cannot acquiesce in starvation, when they know that wealthy capitalists—their own fellow-countrymen—have made money out of their necessities and could well afford in a time of common peril to render them relief. Hence the words have a ring of menace. ‘If we are not given corn, let us take it’. It was equivalent to a threat either to use violence or to surrender the city to its enemies.
The Vulgate ‘accipiamus pro pretio eorum frumentum’ gives a different interpretation of the words. It supposes that these poor starving people offered to sell their children as slaves in order that they might get money to buy food for themselves. This gives a sense approximating that of the conjecture to read ‘’orebhim’ for ‘rabbim’, ‘We give in pledge our sons and our daughters.’ In favour of this conjecture it is claimed (1) that the alteration is very slight, (2) that it brings Neh_5:2 into close parallelism with Neh_5:3, (3) that it obviates the awkwardness of the present text ‘our sons and our daughters, we are many,’ (4) that the present text is at variance with Scripture in making the size of families a subject of complaint. The conjecture is ingenious. But the existing text gives a good sense (see above), and is supported by the versions, which do not show any variation of reading. The position of the words ‘our sons and our daughters, we’ &c. emphasizes the thought uppermost in the people’s mind. The conjecture doubtless increases the verbal parallelism between Neh_5:2-3. But this parallelism does not exist between Neh_5:3-4, and the proposed alteration gives an artificial appearance to the language used. Lastly the conjecture anticipates the statement contained in Neh_5:5. The fact that parents were on the point of giving their children in pledge as slaves forms the climax of the complaint. We should not therefore expect to find it mentioned in the present verse.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) We take up.—Let us receive. This is a…
(2) We take up.—Let us receive. This is a general appeal for the governor’s help.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain There were that said, We, our sons, and our…
There were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many. Those who had large families were foremost in making complaint. They found their numerous progeny not the blessing that abundant offspring is ordinarily reckoned in Holy Scripture, but a burthen and an anxiety. Therefore we take up corn for them. We are obliged to get corn for them, or they would die, and have to run in debt for it. Corn, wine, and oil seem to have been lent, no less than money (ver. 11).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:2 Some farmers had diverted their efforts from raising…
5:2 Some farmers had diverted their efforts from raising crops to building the wall, leaving their large families in need of food to survive. Someone had to feed their families, or they would have to stop work on the wall and go home to work in their fields.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.