⁶ “Alongside the portion set apart as the holy district you shall assign as a holding for the city an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel.^(A)

Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

5 Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish kin.^{(A) 2} For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; we must get grain, so that we may eat and stay alive.” ³ There were also those who said, “We are having to pledge our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in order to get grain during the famine.” ⁴ And there were those who said, “We are having to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s tax.^{(B) 5} Now our flesh is the same as that of our kindred; our children are the same as their children; and yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been ravished; we are powerless, and our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”^(C)

³ Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.^(A)