1. Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives to their fellow Jews.
2. There were those who said, “We and our sons and our daughters are numerous. We must take grain, so we may eat and live.”
3. There were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses in order to obtain grain during the famine.”
4. Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.