Verse 2
2. There were that said These seem to have been persons who held about the civil status of the Roman proletaries, who owned no property, but served the state with their children, and procured a livelihood by labouring for others. These were the lowest class of citizens.
Our sons, and our daughters, are many That which was to the true Israelite the highest gratification and pleasure a pledge that Jehovah’s blessing was with him was in this case the occasion of oppression and sorrow.
We take up corn for them The words for them should be omitted. To take up corn, means to receive or obtain it, not by violence, but by some specific arrangement with the wealthier classes who had corn to sell. How these poorer classes obtained their corn is not said, but the most natural inference is, (compare Nehemiah 5:5; Nehemiah 5:8,) that they sold themselves and their children as bond-servants to the richer Jews, according to the provisions of the law. Exodus 21:7; Leviticus 25:39.
That we may eat, and live Better, thought they, are food and life in bondage, than starvation and death in freedom.
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