Nehemiah 5:2-5

2Many of them said, ‘We are big families, with many sons and daughters. We need to have food to eat so that we can stay alive.’

3Other people said, ‘People have to lend us money to buy food. We have to give them our fields, our vineyards and our homes until we can pay them back.’

4Other people said, ‘We have to pay taxes to the king for our fields and our vineyards. People had to lend us money to pay the taxes.

5Now we have to sell our sons and daughters as slaves so that we can pay back the money. But we are from the same human family as those other Jews. Our children are not different from their children. Already some of our daughters have become slaves. Our fields and vineyards now belong to other people, so we are helpless to do anything.’