Nehemiah 5: No Economic Crisis

Abstract

The crisis described in Nehemiah 5 serves as the literary backdrop for the presentation of Nehemiah as the paradigmatic generous patron. Current social-scientific exegesis of the HB tends to use Nehemiah 5 to support the notion of a structural economic crisis in Yehud. This article argues that Nehemiah 5 and these social-scientific readings make excellent theology but poor economic history.