No rain means no corn, no corn means starvation, and the people know it well.

Nowhere on earth are there such fervent prayers for rain, prayers which are offered by Turk, Jew, and Christian alike, as there are in Palestine to this very day, if the rainy season is passing away and a sufficient quantity of rain has not fallen.
(3) Then Nehemiah found there was a third cause of distress.

Every year, in addition to earning money to keep his wife and children alive, the poor man had to be ready for a visitor, and this visitor never received a very hearty welcome.

Once a year there arrived at his door an official sent by the King of Persia.

He was the tax-collector, sent to collect the tribute which had to be paid yearly to their master, the great sovereign at Shushan.