Now: The introductory formula used in verses 2-4 is not used in verse 5, so a fourth group of people is not indicated. The Hebrew adverb translated Now may indicate that verse 5 is a continuation of the description of the group in verse 4, but more likely it signifies that verse 5 is a summary of the complaints of the three groups. It is a discourse marker introducing an explanation of the tragic situation that has been presented in the preceding verses.

Our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren: For all three groups the appeal to a common kinship between those suffering and those benefiting is valid. They all have the same flesh. They are all the same people. They are “the same race” as Good News Translation makes explicit (also New Jerusalem Bible). In some languages they are “people of the same blood” or “people who have the same blood.”

Our children are as their children: Children is literally “sons” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). However, here the word refers to children and not only to “sons.” The people argue that their children are equals with the children of those who are profiting from their misfortune. Good News Translation restructures this clause in the form of a rhetorical question for stronger effect.

Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved …: The situation of all three groups of people has led to the same result, namely, the enslavement of their children and the loss of their property. Taking children as slaves to work off the debts of the parents was allowed by the Jewish Law (see Exo 21.1-11). It was considered more desirable to allow this to happen than to lose one’s property that was the only source of income. The children would be eventually freed when their service had repaid the debt.

Yet we are forcing may mean they are on the point of having to sell their sons and daughters rather than that it had already happened. The next statement about some of our daughters may indicate that they have already begun selling their daughters, who would be sold before the sons, who would be needed to provide farm labor. The daughters could be taken as second wives in the family to whom money was owed. The verb for enslaved (New Revised Standard Version “ravished” and Contemporary English Version “raped”) in Hebrew may have a sexual connotation but it is clearly not used with that meaning here. The same verb is used previously in this verse where it is translated as forcing and has the usual meaning of being subjugated or forced into slavery.

But it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards: It is not in our power to help it is literally “it is not in our hands.” New American Bible says “we can do nothing about it.” This means they did not have the money to pay their debts to keep their children from going into slavery. That is because other men have their property. Other people do not necessarily already possess their land, but it is mortgaged to them and therefore the owners are in danger of losing it because they are unable to repay their loans.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .