Nehemiah 5:12

12 And they said, We will restore, and we will not exact of them; we will do thus as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and bound them by oath to do according to this word.

Nehemiah 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 5:12

Then said they, we will restore them
The lands, vineyards, oliveyards, and houses:

and will require nothing of them;
not the hundredth part of the fruits of the earth by way of salary:

so will we do as thou sayest;
they approved of his proposal, and readily agreed to it:

then I called the priests, and took an oath of them that they should do
according to this promise;
not that the priests were delinquents, they were not charged with anything of this kind, nor were they the men that promised restitution; but the priests were called to administer the oath to the nobles, and rulers, and rich men, to oblige them the more to keep their word; an oath being sacred, priests in an holy office were made use of to give it, that it might be the more solemn, and the more strictly regarded.

Nehemiah 5:12 In-Context

10 Both my brethren, and my acquaintances, and I, have lent them money and corn: let us now leave off this exaction.

11 Restore to them, I pray, as at this day, their fields, and their vineyards, and their olive-yards, and their houses, and bring forth to them corn and wine and oil of the money.

12 And they said, We will restore, and we will not exact of them; we will do thus as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and bound them by oath to do according to this word.

13 And I shook out my garment, and said, So may God shake out every man who shall not keep to this word, from his house, and from his labours, he shall be even thus shaken out, as an outcast and empty. And all the congregation said, Amen, and they praised the Lord: and the people did this thing.

14 From the day that he charged me to be their ruler in the land of Juda, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Arthasastha, twelve years, I and my brethren ate not extorted from them.