4 There were also some who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The king's tribute - The tax payable to the Persian monarch (compare Ezra 4:13; Esther 10:1). In ancient times, heavy taxation was often productive of debt and distress.
We have borrowed money - This should be read, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute on our lands and vineyards. They had a tax to pay to the Persian king in token of their subjection to him, and though it is not likely it was heavy, yet they were not able to pay it.
There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's (c) 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.
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 not pay it without borrowing upon their estates, and paying large usury for it, see
Others, again, complained: We have borrowed money for the king's tribute upon our fields and vineyards. לוה means to be dependent, nexum esse, and transitively to make dependent, like מלא, to be full, and to make full: We have made our fields and our vineyards answerable for money for the king's tribute (Bertheau), i.e., we have borrowed money upon our fields for This they could only do by pledging the crops of these lands, or at least such a portion of their crops as might equal the sum borrowed; comp. the law, Leviticus 25:14-17.
*More commentary available at chapter level.