These are also landowners whose produce their Persian overlords taxed so heavily (perhaps up to 40 percent of its value) that they have had to borrow money to pay those taxes. Just as with the mortgage of the second group, this borrowing put these farmers at a disadvantage in their efforts to feed their families, let alone get ahead—not to mention their men being absent to assist with the wall. This third group joined the previous two in expressing their discontent with loud cries.
4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.