Nehemiah 5:6

Neh 5:6 And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

Ver. 6. And I was very angry ] Red-hot with anger, and not without cause. To be angry without cause is to be guilty of judgment, Matthew 5:22 , but in case of God’s dishonour, and public prejudice, moderation is mopishness, toleration cowardice, &c. Nehemiah was a magistrate, that is, a mortal god; as God is an immortal magistrate. Therefore as God is angry at the oppressions of poor people (Lactantius hath written a book De Ira Dei ), so should his lieutenants; and this holy anger should be cos fortitudinis, a means to encourage, or rather to enrage them against oppressors, who grind the faces of the poor, and take from them burdens of wheat, Amos 5:11 . Yea, lands and vineyards, as here, eating bread baked with the tears of men, coining their money on their skins, and wringing their spunges into their own purses.

When I heard their cry ] His anger then was mixed with grief, as was our Saviour’s, Mark 3:5 : it was pure zeal, which is nothing else but an extreme (but regular) heat of all the affections.