Неемия 5
1 По това време се дигна голям вик от людете и от жените им против братята им юдеите.
[Later, ] many of the men and their wives protested loudly about what [some of] the [other] Jews were doing.
2 Защото имаше едни, които казваха: Ние, синовете ни и дъщерите ни сме мнозина; затова, нека ни се даде жито та да ядем и да живеем.
Some/One of them said, “We have many children. So we need a lot of grain to be able to eat and continue to live.”
3 А и други имаше, които казваха: Ние заложихме нивите си, лозята си и къщите си, за да вземем жито, по причина на града.
Others said, “The fields and vineyards and houses that we own, it has been necessary for us to (mortgage them/promise to give them to someone if we do not pay back to him the money he has loaned us) in order to get money to buy grain, during this (famine/time where there is not much food).”
4 Имаше пък още други, които казваха: Срещу нивите и срещу лозята си ние заехме пари за царските данъци.
Others said, “We have [needed to] borrow money to pay the taxes that the king [commanded us to pay] on our fields and our vineyards.
5 Но пак нашите тела са като телата на братята ни, нашите чада като техните чада; и, ето, ние ще трябва да даваме синовете си и дъщерите си на работата като роби, и някои от дъщерите ни са вече заведени в робство; нито е в силата ни да правим другояче, защото други имат нивите и лозята ни.
We are Jews just like [IDM] they are. Our children are ([just as good as/equal with)] their children. But we have needed to sell some of our children to become slaves [in order to pay what we owe]. We have already sold some of our daughters to become slaves. Our fields and vineyards have been taken away from us, so now we do not have [the money to pay what we owe, and we are forced to sell our children to get money to pay those debts].”
6 И оскърбих се твърде много, като чух вика им и тия думи.
I was very angry when I heard these things that they were complaining about.
7 Тогава, като размислих в себе си, изобличих благородните и по-първите човеци, като им рекох: Вие вземате лихва всеки от брата си. И свиках против тях голямо събрание, та им рекох:
So I thought about what I could do about it. I told the leaders and officials [who were responsible for this work], “You are charging interest to your own relatives [when they borrow money from you]!” Then I called together a large group of people,
8 Ние според силата си изкупихме братята си юдеите, които бяха предадени на народите; а сами вие ще продадете ли братята си? трябва ли да се продадат нам? А те мълчаха и не намериха какво да отговорят.
and I said to their [leaders], “Some of our Jewish relatives have been forced to sell themselves to become slaves of people who have come from other countries. As much as we have been able to, we have been buying them back [out of slavery]. But now you are forcing your own relatives to sell themselves to you, their fellow Jews, as slaves!” [When I said that to them, ] they were silent. There was nothing that they could say [because they knew that what I said was true].
9 Пак рекох: Не е добро това, което правите. Не трябва ли да ходите в страха на нашия Бог, за да не ни укоряват езичниците, нашите неприятели?
Then I said to them, “What you are doing is terrible [EUP]! You certainly ought to [RHQ] obey God and do what is right! If you did that, our enemies who do not revere Yahweh [would see that we are doing what is right and] would not ridicule us.
10 Също и аз - братята ми и слугите ми - сме им заели пари и жито под лихва, но нека оставим, моля, това лихварство.
My fellow Jews and I and my servants have lent money and grain to people [without charging interest]. So you all should stop charging interest on these loans.
11 Върнете им, прочее, още днес, нивите им, лозята им, маслините им и къщите им, тоже стотната част от парите, от житото, от виното и от дървеното масло, които изисквате от тях.
Also, you must give back to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive tree orchards, and their houses that you have taken from them. You must also give back to them the interest that you charged them when they borrowed money, grain, wine, and [olive] oil from you, and you must do it today!”
12 Тогава рекоха: Ще ги повърнем и нищо не ще искаме от тях; както казваш, така ще направим. Тогава повиках свещениците, чрез които ги заклех, че ще направят според това обещание.
The leaders replied, “We will do what you have said. We will return to them everything that we forced them to give to us, and we will not require that they give us anything more.” Then I summoned the priests, and I forced the leaders to vow in front of them that they would do what they had promised to do.
13 Отърсих още и пазухата си, и рекох: Така да отърси Бог от къщата му и от труда му всеки, който не е изпълнил това обещание; да! така да бъде отърсен и изпразнен. И цялото събрание рече: Амин! и прославиха Господа. И людете постъпиха според това обещание.
I shook out the folds of my robe and said to them, “If you do not do what you have just now promised to do, I hope/desire that God will shake you like I am shaking my robe. He will take away your homes and everything else that you own.” They all replied, “Amen/May it be so!” And they praised Yahweh. Then they did what they had promised to do.
14 А от времето, когато бях назначен за областен управител над тях в Юдовата земя, от двадесетата година на цар Артаксеркса, дванадесет години, аз и братята ми не сме вземали заплатата на областен управител.
I was appointed to be the governor of Judea in the twentieth year that Artaxerxes was the king [of Persia]. For the next twelve years, until he had been ruling for almost 32 years, neither I nor my officials accepted [the money that we were allowed/entitled to receive to buy] food because of my being the governor.
15 А по-раншните областни управители, които бяха преди мене, бяха товар на людете, и, освен четиридесет сикли сребро, вземаха от тях хляб и вино; при това, и слугите им господаруваха над людете. Но аз не правех така, понеже се боях от Бога.
The men who were governors before I became the governor had burdened the people by requiring them to pay a lot of taxes. They had forced each person to pay to them 40 silver coins every day, in addition to giving food and wine to them. Even their servants/officials oppressed the people. But I did not do that, because I revered God.
16 Още и залягах върху работата на тая стена, и нива не купихме; и всичките ми слуги бяха събрани там за тая работа.
I also continued to work on the wall, and I did not take land from people [who were unable to pay back the money that they had borrowed from me]. All those who worked for me joined me to work on the wall.
17 При това, на трапезата ми имаше сто и петдесет мъже от юдеите и по-видните човеци, освен ония, които идеха при нас от околните нам народи.
Also, every day I was responsible to feed 150 Jewish officials, and also [official] visitors who came from nearby countries.
18 А това що се готвеше за мене всеки ден бе едно говедо и шест отборни овци; и птици се готвеха за мене, а веднъж в десет дни имахме изобилно вино от всякакъв вид; а при всичко това аз не поисках заплатата на областен управител, защото робството тежеше силно върху тия люде.
Each day I [told my servants to] serve [us the meat from] one ox, six very good sheep, and chickens. And every ten days I gave them a large new supply of wine. But I knew that the people were burdened [by paying lots of taxes], so I did not accept [the money that I was entitled/allowed to receive to buy all this] food because of my being the governor.
19 Помни ме, Боже мой, за добро поради всичко, което съм сторил за людете.
My God, do not forget me, and reward me because of all that I have done for these people.
