Nehemiah 5:8

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

We after: Matthew 25:15, Matthew 25:29, 2 Corinthians 8:12, Galatians 6:10

redeemed: Leviticus 25:47-49

sell your: Exodus 21:16, Deuteronomy 24:7

shall they: Romans 14:15, 1 Corinthians 8:11

held: Job 29:10, Job 32:15, Matthew 22:12, Romans 3:19

Reciprocal: Genesis 17:13 - bought Genesis 31:15 - sold us Genesis 37:27 - sell him Exodus 21:2 - an Hebrew Leviticus 25:48 - General Leviticus 25:50 - price of his sale Deuteronomy 28:68 - there ye shall Nehemiah 9:37 - dominion Job 6:23 - Redeem Psalms 44:12 - increase Ecclesiastes 10:19 - but Amos 8:6 - General Zechariah 11:5 - sell Matthew 5:22 - his brother Matthew 18:25 - commanded Acts 11:29 - every 1 Corinthians 6:6 - brother Ephesians 6:9 - ye Revelation 18:13 - slaves

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I said unto them,.... The nobles, and rulers, and other rich persons that exacted usury of the poor:

we after our ability; speaking of himself in the plural number, which now obtained in the court of Persia; or of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and others, who, according as their worldly circumstances, having been captives, would admit of:

have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the Heathen; not that they had given a ransom for them to Cyrus, or any other king of Persia, which would be contrary to the prophecies concerning their redemption, Isaiah 45:13 but such who had sold themselves to particular persons in Babylon, who, without being redeemed, could not take the advantage of the liberty granted by Cyrus, and his successors; and it may be there were others also in the like circumstances, in other neighbouring nations, that had been redeemed this way. The Jewish canon i now is, he that sells himself, and his children, to Gentiles, they do not redeem; but they redeem the children after their father's death; which the commentators k explain of the third time that he sells himself:

and will you even sell your brethren? their lands and vineyards mortgaged to them, and even their persons:

or shall they be sold unto us? must we be obliged to buy them, and to redeem them:

then they held their peace, and found nothing to answer; being convinced they had done wrong, by the arguments used, to which they could make no reply.

i Misn. Gittin, c. 4. sect. 9. k Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Nehemiah contrasts his own example with that of the rich Jews. He had spent money in redeeming some countrymen in servitude among the pagan; they were causing others to be sold into slavery among the Jews.