Bible Strands
Nehemiah 5:11
Please restore to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and oil that you have been assessing them.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nehemiah commands the nobles and officials to immediately return the land, homes, and financial percentages they have been extracting from the people. This occurs during a public assembly addressing the economic exploitation and usury practiced by the Jewish leadership.
The words — The Hebrew imperative הָשִׁיבוּ (hashivu) means "return" or "restore," paired with נָא (na), an intensive particle translated as "please." Together with כַּיּוֹם (kayyom), meaning "this very day," the phrasing demands immediate restitution of fields, vineyards, olive groves, houses, and the hundredth part of money, grain, wine, and oil.
The thread — The requirement to restore seized property and halt extortion is mandated in Leviticus 6:4, which commands restitution for stolen goods or deposits. The call to release economic burdens parallels Isaiah 58:6, which defines true worship as breaking the yoke of oppression, while Samuel’s public accountability in 1 Samuel 12:3 mirrors the demand for transparent leadership.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate, verifiable restitution of property and revenue before any further religious or civic action. It requires readers to prioritize concrete economic justice over abstract piety and to hold leaders accountable for the material harm their policies cause.
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
Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 58:6 Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?
- Leviticus 6:4 once he has sinned and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or the deposit entrusted to him, or the lost property he found,
- 1 Samuel 12:3 Here I am. Bear witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.”
- 2 Samuel 12:6 Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”
- Nehemiah 5:3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
- Luke 3:8 Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.