The pronoun you
refers to the nobles and officials standing over yonder, as we might imagine, listening to Nehemiah’s words. The phrase your brothers
refers to the relatives of the great assembly Nehemiah had gathered to hear his words, the same people whose outcry had prompted Nehemiah’s charges.
The term sell
captures the essence of what parents have had to do in response to the pressures the nobles and officials had put on them as described in Nehemiah 5:2–4. That the victims of the nobles’ selfishness are described as your brothers
graphically recalls the repugnance of what Jacob’s sons did to their helpless brother Joseph (Genesis 37:28) and serves to highlight the horror of what the present generation was doing to their own community.
8 and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.