Neh 5:3 | KingComments | STEP | Another group has properties such as fields, vineyards and houses, but no grain. In order to stay alive there is nothing else to do but mortgaging these properties to the rich, who do have grain, in order to get it that way. Everything the rich can earn anything from, they demand as security. What the fields and vineyards yield, will also end up in the pockets of the rich. In this way, the rich will also have access to all the valuables present in the house. In this way, the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer. This second group of complainants has possessions, but no food. Driven by hunger, they have to mortgage their property. This means they have lost the real pleasure of it. Someone can become so mentally impoverished that he surrenders what he still possesses in terms of spiritual wealth. In exchange for some spiritual food for the maintenance of his spiritual life he surrenders himself to someone who only wants to enrich himself at his expense. They own fields, but they have not cultivated them, so that there is no fruit. If they mortgage them, they even lose the opportunity to get fruit from them. They do have vineyards, but they don’t produce enough to buy corn for them. They have lost the joy the wine speaks of. They do have houses, but even the rich demand them in exchange for grain. In this way, their environment will be controlled by those to whom they are indebted. Whoever becomes dependent on people for (spiritual) food will lose everything: his hope, his joy and his home.

‏ Nehemiah 5:3

Mortgaging Properties

Another group has properties such as fields, vineyards and houses, but no grain. In order to stay alive there is nothing else to do but mortgaging these properties to the rich, who do have grain, in order to get it that way. Everything the rich can earn anything from, they demand as security. What the fields and vineyards yield, will also end up in the pockets of the rich. In this way, the rich will also have access to all the valuables present in the house. In this way, the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer.

This second group of complainants has possessions, but no food. Driven by hunger, they have to mortgage their property. This means they have lost the real pleasure of it. Someone can become so mentally impoverished that he surrenders what he still possesses in terms of spiritual wealth. In exchange for some spiritual food for the maintenance of his spiritual life he surrenders himself to someone who only wants to enrich himself at his expense.

They own fields, but they have not cultivated them, so that there is no fruit. If they mortgage them, they even lose the opportunity to get fruit from them. They do have vineyards, but they don’t produce enough to buy corn for them. They have lost the joy the wine speaks of. They do have houses, but even the rich demand them in exchange for grain. In this way, their environment will be controlled by those to whom they are indebted.

Whoever becomes dependent on people for (spiritual) food will lose everything: his hope, his joy and his home.