FINANCIAL REFORM BY NEHEMIAH.[1]
After seventy years of captivity of the Hebrews in Chaldea an edict
was issued by Cyrus the king permitting their return to Judea. The
most earnest and devout had been restless and homesick in the strange
land. The restoration was led by Zerubbabel who accompanied by about
five thousand of the most devout men from the various families, made
their way over the long return to their former home. This was only
about one-sixth of the captive population. Many preferred to remain in
the land they had now adopted, and where some had been prospered, and
some were perhaps less fervent in their religious zeal. This fraction
of the people, however, determined to re-erect their temple and to
cultivate the fields again that were given to their fathers and to
rebuild the nation, the tradition of whose glory never failed to stir
their hearts.
Eighty years later another company under the priest and scholar, Ezra,
authorized by Artaxerxes, joined the first colony that had returned to
re-occupy their own land.
A few years later another company was led by the patriot, Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was in an honorable and lucrative position in the first court
upon earth, yet he grieved over the misfortunes of his own people,
and especially over the reported distress of the returned exiles. He
sought leave of absence and a commission to return and co-work with
his brethren for their complete re-establishment at Jerusalem.
The leave of absence was cheerfully granted and a broad commission
given to take with him any who wished to return. The revenues of the
king were placed at his disposal and the governors of the provinces
were ordered to assist and further his work. A large company of the
earnest and devout returned with him, confident of his protection and
in sympathy with his mission. He deliberately reviewed the work to be
done, made careful plans and was greatly successful.
The people were obedient. They cheerfully endured the privations and
dangers in their devotion to their country, and in the hope of
retrieving the fortunes of their depressed people.
Enemies appeared, who threatened to estop their work, but some worked
while others watched, with arms in hand, ready to defend. Some wrought
with one hand and held a weapon for ready defence in the other.
Nehemiah and his aides, and many of the people, did not take off their
clothes, but were on duty constantly--so devoted were they to the
cause in which they were engaged, regaining their homes and
re-establishing the worship of their fathers and rebuilding the
nation.
But there was a strange interruption in this patriotic work. A sordid
covetousness possessed their nobles and rulers. While the people were
absorbed in their patriotic service, these persons were planning
successfully to despoil them.
A cry of distress came to the ears of Nehemiah. The people found, now
that they had made the sacrifice and suffered deprivations and
cheerfully given their labors for the common good, they were deprived
of their blessings and enslaved.
This enslavement was not to foreign rulers, but to those of their own
blood. A division had grown up among their own kindred. Some had grown
rich and become their masters. Others were in hopeless poverty. The
distinctions came gradually or grew up among them, possibly
unobserved: the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer, until the
nobles held their lands and were selling their sons and daughters as
chattels.
This condition was hopeless, after all their struggles for nearly a
hundred years to re-establish their institutions. Neither they nor
their children could, under those conditions, enjoy the fruit of all
their efforts. This was no fault of theirs. There had been times of
dearth and harvest failure, when some with large families were in
need. The king's tribute, too, was heavy upon them and some were not
able to pay and they were compelled to borrow, but had to give
mortgages upon their land as security. Now lands, homes and all, had
passed to the creditors and they were despondent and helpless.
This cry caused Nehemiah great distress, but Nehemiah was not like
Ezra, a devout and learned priest, but without executive power, who in
a like position gave way to unmitigated grief. Nehemiah was equally
patriotic and conscientious, but he was also a strong leader and an
independent commander. He did not call together the nobles and rulers
charged with oppression and ask them what he should do. He had none of
their counsel. He took counsel with himself, his own conscience, his
own judgment, and worked out an independent, individual policy which
he should pursue.
His sympathy was with the suffering people, and he determined to
espouse their cause and to correct their wrongs. He then called the
nobles and rulers and charged them to their face with oppression. He
laid "the ax at the root of the tree" and charged the fault to their
covetousness, to the exacting of usury or interest. It was this, he
declared, that had brought them to wealth, but driven others to
poverty. He demanded reparation. When they were slow to yield, he
called a convocation of the people and aroused them to a due sense of
the wrong they had been enduring, and laid bare the sins of the rulers
and nobles. He showed the oppression by comparing their sordid and
greedy conduct with the unselfish, self-sacrifice of himself and
others for the common good. While he and the patriotic people were
busy with hand and brain in rebuilding the nation and fighting the
enemies, these usurers were busy getting in their work of ruin,
gathering the property into their own hands and enslaving the
patriots.
The usurers were not able to withstand this onslaught of the chief
commander and the aroused people, and they made no reply. Their
conduct had so evidently been contrary both to the letter and spirit
of their own law, they were compelled to yield and to say meekly, "We
will do as you have said."
Then he stated the terms and conditions of the reform he would
institute.
1. They must return the pledges they had taken for debts, without
reserve. The people must not be deprived of their land, tools, or
instruments of production. The foreclosure of mortgages must be set
aside and the people again given possession of their lands.
2. Interest must be returned or credited upon the debts. If the
interest equaled the debt, then the debt was fully discharged. If more
than the principal had been paid, then it must be returned in money or
in the product of lands taken in foreclosure, the wine or oil or
fruits and grains must be returned. Thus only could the wrongs be
corrected and righteous adjustment be made.
There then followed a general restoration of pledges and a cancelling
of debts that had been paid once in interest, and a repaying of any
surplus.
3. They must take a solemn vow that this sin shall henceforth be
unknown among them. The law against usury or interest must henceforth
be carefully obeyed. These distinctions that had grown up among them
must disappear forever, and the cause of the poverty of the many and
the wealth of the few must be shunned.
To these conditions the usurers assented, made ashamed by the conduct
of the noble patriot in contrast with their own selfishness, though
they had not yielded until awed and compelled by the indignation of
the people, which Nehemiah had enkindled against them.
This positive enforcement of the law against the taking of increase on
any loan, makes unmistakably clear the interpretation of the law by
the devout, earnest, sincere, God-fearing Hebrews, down to the close
of the Old Testament Canon.
[1] References: Ezra, Nehemiah, Bible Dictionaries.