Nehemiah 5:11

Restore, I pray you, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses,.... Which they had made over to them for corn they had had, or money they borrowed of them; it is

Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

Also the hundredth part of the money; also require not; which is to be supplied out of the next verse, where it is expressed in their answer to and grant of this desire. The hundredth part; which they required every month for the use of their monies or goods, according to the custom then used, and afterwards by the Romans.

Nehemiah 5:11 Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth [part] of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.Ver. 11. Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day] While you are in a melting temper, and in a good mind, make restitution. Say not, This is a hard saying, who can brook it? But say rather, as the civilian saith, Perquam durum est; sed ita lex scripta est, ‘ Tis hard to be done, but the law will have it so done; Aut faciendam, aut patiendum (Ulpian.). Either we must do it, or do worse. The law for restitution, see Leviticus 6:1; Leviticus 6:4 Numbers 5:6-7, &c. The wrong-doer must not only confess, but restore. The transgression was against God, but the trespass against man; and he must be satisfied, if the sin shall be pardoned. Samuel proffered to restore, if it might appear that he had wronged any, 1 Samuel 12:3. Micah, though an idolater did so, Judges 17:2-3. So did Queen Mary she restored again all ecclesiastical livings asstoned to the crown. Her grandfather, Henry VII, in his last will and testament, devised and willed restitution should be forthwith made of all such monies as had been unjustly levied by the officers. Selimus, the Great Turk, did the like upon his death bed; so great is the force of natural conscience. Gravel in the kidneys will not grate so much as a little guilt in this kind. Restore your evil gotten goods, saith father Latimer, or else you will cough in hell, and the devils will laugh at you. He set this point so well home, that he wrought upon many; and particularly upon Master Bradford. Austin saith, that if a man be able to make actual restitution, and do it not, poenitentia non agitur, sed fingitur, his repentance is not right; if he have wasted all, and is not able to restore, he must desire pardon very humbly, and water the earth with his tears. Also the hundredth part of the money] That is, all that they had received for interest, whether money, or else. It appeareth, by this text, that they took twelve in the hundred (for so much the hundredth part monthly amounteth to), as at this day in Italy, and elsewhere, the Jews are permitted to strain up their usury to eighteen in the hundred upon the Christian (for among themselves they now use it not), which causeth many of those Pseudo-Christians to use those Jews underhand, in improving their lawful rents to the utmost proportion. (Sandys’ Survey.)

(11) Also the hundredth part of the money.—The monthly payment of one per cent. per month, twelve per cent. in the year, they were required to give up for the future.

Verse 11. Also the hundredth part of the money] Houbigant contends, 1. That the word מאת meath, which we and the Vulgate translate one hundredth part, never means so anywhere; and 2. That it would have answered no end to have remitted to people so distressed merely the one hundredth part of the money which had been taken from them by usury. He understands מאת meath as signifying the same as מן את min eth, contracted into מאת meeth, a preposition and demonstrative particle joined together, also a part FROM THE money. Neither the Syriac, Septuagint, nor Arabic acknowledges this hundredth part. Some think that the hundredth part is that which they obliged the poor debtors to pay each month, which would amount to what we would call twelve per cent. interest for the money lent, or the debt contracted. See the introduction.

11. Restore, I pray you, &c.] On ‘I pray you’ see note on Nehemiah 5:10. Nehemiah demands immediate redress for the wrongs done to fellow-countrymen. He demands restoration of property and remission of interest on loans. even this day] The same Hebrew word as is rendered in 1 Samuel 9:13, ‘at this time.’ Literally = ‘as if to-day,’ i.e. ‘immediately.’ their lands … houses] R.V. their fields … houses. The first part of the demand is the restoration to the poor of the property which had been offered as security for the sums borrowed from the money-lenders. also the hundredth part, &c.] This ‘hundredth part’ was in all probability reckoned by month. It corresponded therefore to the Latin ‘centesima usura,’ and represented interest at the rate of 12 per cent. corn, the wine, and the oil] This exorbitant rate of interest seems to have been exacted in kind if cash was not forthcoming. The second part of Nehemiah’s demand refers to the exaction of interest. It is impossible to suppose that he required the moneylenders to restore the sums which had already been paid in interest. The main verb ‘restore’ is only by ‘zeugma’ applicable to ‘the hundredth part;’ and the meaning is ‘do not exact,’ ‘remit your claim to the 12 p. c. interest which you are accustomed to levy in money or produce of the land.’ His twofold demand, for immediate restoration of property and for future renunciation of interest, corresponds to the twofold reply of the money-lenders in the following verse. It is probable that we are only to understand Nehemiah’s intervention to be made in the interests of the poor. The transactions of the wealthy with one another are not contemplated by the early Israelite or the Levitical laws, Exodus 22:25; Leviticus 25:36-37. An ingenious conjecture, which alters the text by the insertion of one letter only, would read, instead of ‘the hundredth part’ (um’ath), ‘the usury’ (umash’ath). The latter part of the verse would then only expand in greater detail the substance of the first. The LXX. ἀ ?ðὸ follows a different pointing of the word.

The hundredth part of the money ... - i. e. the interest. It is conjectured that the 100th part was payable monthly, or, in other words, that interest was taken at the rate of twelve per cent.

11. Restore… this day — Wrongs cannot be too speedily righted. The hundredth part — This is commonly supposed to mean one per cent. paid monthly, thus corresponding with the Roman centesimae usurae, or twelve per cent. per annum.