Neh 5:13

“I also shook out my garment Heb. חָצְנִי, I also shook out my garment. חָצְנִי is like (Isa. 49: 22): “...and they shall bring your sons on the skirt of their garments (בְּחֹצֶן).” my garment is escrol(l)e in Old French, I shook out, like (ibid. 52:2): “Shake yourself (הִתְנַעֲרִי) from the dust.” So shall...shake out So shall the Holy One, blessed be He, shake out from the world and from their property those who do not relinquish their debts. shake out and empty without property.”

“Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah,.... That is, by the king of Persia, which was not done when he was first sent into Judea; but very probably when he had finished the wall in fifty two days, he returned to Persia, and gave the king an account of his success, and how things stood in those parts, when he judged it necessary to send him again in the character of a governor, and which was still within the same year, as follows: from the twentieth year, even unto the thirty second year of Artaxerxes, that is, twelve years; see Neh 13:6. I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor; which was fit and proper for him, and used to be given him; neither he, nor those that assisted him in the government, the principal men he brought along with him, and put into posts and places under him.”

“Also I shook my lap - This was a significant action frequent among the Hebrews; and something of the same nature was practiced among other nations. "When the Roman ambassadors entered the senate of Carthage, they had their toga gathered up in their bosom. They said, We carry here peace and war; you may have which you will. The senate answered, You may give which you please. They then shook their toga, and said, We bring you war. To which all the senate answered, We cheerfully accept it." See Livy. lib. xxi., cap. 18; and see Calmet.”

“Lap, or skirt of my robes. (Tirinus) — Such figurative actions were very common. Thus a Roman ambassador at Carthage, folding up his garment, said he brought peace or war. (Livy xxi. 18.) (Calmet) — Said. Behold how easily was that effected at Jerusalem, which the Romans could never perfectly bring about, after the most violent riots! (Tirinus)”