Nehemiah Stands Up for What's Right

While everyone was working hard on the wall, something bad was happening. Some rich people were being greedy!

Poor families came to Nehemiah crying. 'We're trying to help build the wall, but we can't grow food at the same time! The rich people are making us pay them lots of money. They're taking our fields and our houses! Some of us even had to let our kids go work for them because we owe so much!'

Nehemiah got VERY angry. Not at the poor people—at the RICH people who were being greedy and mean!

He called a big meeting. He stood in front of all the rich leaders. 'What you're doing is WRONG! You're supposed to help your own people, not take everything from them! God doesn't like this!'

The rich people didn't know what to say. They knew Nehemiah was right.

'Stop charging them money right now!' Nehemiah said. 'Give back their fields and their houses today!'

'We will!' the rich people promised. 'We'll give everything back!'

Then Nehemiah told everyone something important. 'I'm the governor. That means I could make everyone pay me and give me fancy food every day. But I've never done that! Instead, I use MY OWN money to feed 150 people at my table every single day! I don't want to be a burden to you.'

Nehemiah was showing everyone what a good leader looks like. A good leader doesn't take from people—a good leader GIVES to people and helps them!

The people learned an important lesson: When we see something unfair, we should stand up for what's right, just like Nehemiah did! And we should share what we have with others instead of keeping everything for ourselves.

God was happy that Nehemiah cared about treating people fairly. That's just as important as building walls!