נחמיה, פרק ה׳, פסוק ב׳

A bitter cry rises from the common people, directed at the wealthy members of their community who have closed their hands and refused to provide food or aid. Lacking land or fields of their own, these poor families find themselves facing a severe, life-threatening famine [רש״י, אבן עזרא, מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם].

The desperate plea of the poor centers on their children and their overwhelming situation. The primary approach among commentators is that their claim is a simple matter of quantity: the poor are burdened with large families, meaning their daily needs are vast and they require a substantial amount of grain to survive. Another perspective suggests that their cry highlights the heavy, ongoing responsibility of raising children, a demanding task that requires resources they simply do not possess [רלב״ג, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

Taking a completely different approach, another line of thought connects their distress directly to the crushing burden of interest. In this view, the poverty is so profound that these families are forced to borrow money at steep interest rates. Driven to extremes just to secure a small amount of food, they are even compelled to pawn and sell their own sons and daughters to their wealthy creditors as collateral [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ, רש״י].

Left with no money and no other options, the starving people declare that they are forced to acquire grain from the market or wherever it can be found. They are willing to pay any price, even the tragic cost of enslaving their own children, simply to keep their families alive [מצודת דוד, אבן עזרא].