Nehemiah 5:1

A great cry. It is uncertain when some of the events described in this chapter took place. Not all of them can have occurred during the building of the wall, since verse 14 carries the record to the close of Nehemiah’s 12 years as governor. At most only verses 1-13 can be assigned to the time of building the wall. It is true that labor on the wall without pay would take many away from their ordinary means of livelihood. On the other hand, the work was completed in too short a time to occasion serious economic distress, especially of the kind here described. There is no hint in the narrative that the distress was connected with the work of reconstruction. The grievances lay much deeper, and had been developing over a long period of time, but came to a crisis during the building of the wall (see PK 646). In verses 14-19 Nehemiah gives an account of his personal conduct while in office as governor of Judea (see 1 Samuel 12:3-5).

The cry was one of dire distress. The plaintiffs were the poor among the people, and the defendants their more well-to-do brethren (see 2 Kings 24:14).