Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.
Then they said, 'We will give everything back, and we won't demand anything more from them. We'll do exactly what you've said.' So I called the priests over and made the leaders swear an oath that they would keep this promise.
The writer is describing how the wealthy leaders agreed to stop exploiting the poor and made a binding promise before God to restore what they had taken.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Nehemiah, the Jewish people had returned from exile in Babylon and were focused on rebuilding Jerusalem's walls, but they faced internal strife due to economic oppression among their own ranks. The wealthy nobles were exploiting the poor by charging excessive interest on loans, forcing them to sell their lands and even their children into slavery, which violated God's laws on fair treatment. Nehemiah, as a leader, confronted this injustice publicly, and in this verse, the offenders agreed to make restitution and sealed their promise with an oath before the priests to ensure accountability.
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