Bible Strands
Nehemiah 5:6
When I heard their outcry and these complaints, I became extremely angry,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nehemiah addresses the nobles and officials of Judah immediately after hearing the people's complaints about debt, enslavement, and lost property in Nehemiah 5:5.
The words — The Hebrew phrase וַיִּחַר (va-yi-char) literally translates to "and it burned," modified by מְאֹד (me'od, "exceedingly") to quantify Nehemiah's reaction.
The thread — This pattern of anger at unjust demands appears in Numbers 16:15 when Moses reacts to the Levites' complaint, and resurfaces in Nehemiah 13:25 when he physically rebukes those who violated covenant obligations.
Why it lands — The text records Nehemiah's immediate emotional response to systemic exploitation before he moves to formal correction, requiring the reader to recognize anger as a documented response to injustice rather than a peripheral emotion.
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 I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
Cross-references
- Exodus 11:8 And all these officials of yours will come and bow before me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will depart.” And hot with anger, Moses left Pharaoh’s presence.
- 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!
- Numbers 16:15 Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, “Do not regard their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them or mistreated a single one of them.”
- Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,
- Nehemiah 13:8 And I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.
- Mark 3:5 Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored.