08/10/2025
GIVE IT BACK TO THE OWNER.
TEXT; NEHEMIAH 5 VS 6-11.
And I was very angry, when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 📚Then I controlled my inner feelings📖, and I rebuked the nobles and rulers and said to them, “Every one of you is exacting usury📖 from his brother”. And I held a great assembly against them. 8 📚📚And I said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations📖, and will you even sell your brethren so that they have to be sold back to us?” Then they kept silent📖, and found no answer.
9 📚I also said, “What you are doing is not good. Because of the reproach📖 of our enemy nations should you not walk in the fear of our God📖? 10 📚I too, and my brethren and my servants, are lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! 11 📚This very day please restore to them their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, the wine and the oil, that you exacted from them”.
5:11 It was not enough for them to admit their guilt. They had to act in a way that proved the genuineness of their repentance. God always requires men to give back what they have unjustly taken. See Matt 3:8; Luke 19:8; Ex 22:1; Lev 6:4-5; 24:18, 21; 1 Sam 12:3; 2 Sam 12:6..
