Grammatically, the speakers in this sentence could be either the persons of the third group (that is, Nehemiah 5:4) or the persons of the three groups combined. In the latter case, Nehemiah 5:5 captures the complaint of all three—and that seems the most likely. The phrase our flesh
refers to the offspring of the three oppressed groups and so describes the first victims of the pressures their parents are experiencing. The phrase our brothers
refers to the same group as was mentioned in Nehemiah 5:1, that is, their Jewish brothers.
The point of the phrase is that the members of the destitute group are blood relatives of the Jewish brothers
group, which, as it turns out, is declining to give grain, is loaning the mortgage money, and is supplying the funds needed to pay the king’s tax, and in the process is imposing further hardship upon their stricken cousins.
5 Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”