Bible Strands
Nehemiah 5:12
“We will restore it,” they replied, “and will require nothing more from them. We will do as you say.” So I summoned the priests and required of the nobles and officials an oath that they would do what they had promised.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The nobles and officials answer Nehemiah’s demand to return seized property and halt interest charges, after which Nehemiah calls the priests to administer an oath binding the leaders to their pledge.
The words — The leaders declare נָשִׁיב (na.Shiv), “we will return,” and לֹא נְבַקֵּשׁ (lo’ ne.va.Kesh), “we will not require,” explicitly canceling any future claims on the people’s assets.
The thread — Nehemiah’s reliance on a priestly-administered oath to secure compliance mirrors Ezra’s use of an oath with the leading priests and Levites in Ezra 10:5, while Jeremiah 34:8 and 2 Kings 23:2 record other covenant moments where leaders formally bind the community to public commitments.
Why it lands — The passage records a verbal agreement immediately followed by a sworn oath, demonstrating that scriptural commitments require enforceable accountability rather than informal assurance.
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
Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.
Cross-references
- Ezra 10:5 So Ezra got up and made the leading priests, Levites, and all Israel take an oath to do what had been said. And they took the oath.
- Jeremiah 34:8 After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD
- 2 Kings 23:2 And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
- 2 Chronicles 6:22 When a man sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before Your altar in this temple,
- 2 Chronicles 15:13 And whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, would be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.
- 2 Chronicles 28:14 So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the leaders and all the assembly.
- Ezra 10:12 And the whole assembly responded in a loud voice: “Truly we must do as you say!
- Nehemiah 10:29 hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.
- Nehemiah 10:31 When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow and will cancel every debt.
- Nehemiah 13:25 I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!