Bible Strands
Nehemiah 5:1
About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports a sudden crisis during the rebuilding period when the people and their wives directed a complaint against their own countrymen. This occurred at a moment of acute food shortage that threatened survival.
The words — The text highlights צַעֲקַ֥ת (tza'a.Kat), meaning a cry of distress, modified by גְּדוֹלָ֑ה (ge.do.Lah), meaning great. These terms describe the scale and urgency of the public complaint.
The thread — This pattern of communal distress and brotherly complaint echoes Exodus 3:7, where God hears the cry of His afflicted people, and Deuteronomy 15:7, which commands attention to poor brothers. The situation also reflects the covenant failure warned against in Isaiah 5:7 regarding the house of Israel.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that economic desperation fractures community bonds, requiring leaders to address systemic injustice before rebuilding can succeed. Readers must confront how resource scarcity tests covenant loyalty and demands immediate, practical intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- Deuteronomy 15:7 If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.
- Exodus 3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
- Exodus 22:25 If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.
- Leviticus 25:35 Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
- Job 31:38 if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,
- Job 34:28 They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- Luke 18:7 Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them?
- Acts 7:26 The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’
- 1 Corinthians 6:6 Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!