This phrase occurs three times with no variation; see also Nehemiah 5:3 and Nehemiah 5:4. Three groups among the people and…their wives
utter three distinct complaints as justification for their great outcry.
The first group wailed (literally), Our sons and daughters! We are many!
They add, Let us acquire grain so that we may eat and stay alive.
2 For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.”