Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.
We have here the tears of the oppressed, which Solomon considered, Ecc 4:1. Let us consider them as here they are dropped before Nehemiah, whose office it was, as governor, to deliver the poor and needy, and rid them out of the hand of the wicked oppressors, Psa 82:4. Hard times and hard hearts made the poor miserable. I. The times they lived in were hard.
Commenting on Nehemiah 5:1-5
There were also that said,.... Who though they were able to buy corn for their families without mortgaging their estates: yet, say they: we have borrowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards; for though the priests, Levites, and Nethinims, were exempted from it, yet not the people in common; and some of these were so poor, that they could...
There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute, [and that upon] our lands and vineyards. (c) To pay our tribute to the king of the Persians, which was exacted yearly from us.