Nehemiah 5:3

3. Also there were Another class higher than those of Nehemiah 5:2, for they were the owners of lands, vineyards, and houses. These had brought themselves into distress by mortgaging or pledging their property for food.

Because of the dearth Literally, in the famine. This famine or scarcity may have been occasioned, not by a pestilence or barrenness of their lands, but because so many of the people had been called from their homes to labour on the wall, and thus had failed to sow and reap their fields. The neighbouring nations, also, being hostile towards them, would be likely to hinder the importation of provisions from a distance.