Nehemiah's Provision For The Defence Of The Builders (Nehemiah 4:16-23).
Nehemiah now called on his own specialist troops, fully armed with mail and shields, to act as a protective force for Jerusalem. These were probably his escort which he would have retained in Jerusalem for the journey back and may well have included Persians in their number. They would be fully trained troops. Note that he speaks of them as ‘my servants'. Meanwhile the other workers were to carry arms with them as they continued the work, ready to defend themselves, and to respond to any call for assistance.
‘And it came about from that time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work, and half of them held the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail, and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.'
It seems clear that most of Nehemiah's ‘men', apart from those who acted as his bodyguard, had previously been helping with the building work, presumably in a supervisory capacity. Now half of them were withdrawn and called on to stand fully armed ready for any emergency. They would bear the initial brunt of any surprise attack. Notice their superior armour which distinguishes them from the Jews. The other half were to continue to help in the work, but with their own armour held ready by the former in case they were called on. Together with his own permanent bodyguard they formed a permanent ‘standing army'. Meanwhile the rulers of the Jews, also presumably acting as supervisors, were supporting ‘the whole house of Judah', that is, those who were working on the walls. They encouraged them in the work, kept in communication with Nehemiah, and stood ready to act as militia leaders. These formed a secondary force (armed but with no armour) which could be called up if required. For this situation we can compare David and ‘his men' (2 Samuel 5:6), ‘his servants' (2 Samuel 11:1; 2 Samuel 15:18), who were a permanent standing army, but could be supplemented by ‘all Israel' when required (2Sa 6:1; 2 Samuel 10:17; 2 Samuel 11:1).
‘They all built the wall and those who bore burdens loaded themselves, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held his weapon, and the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so built.
Meanwhile, while his men performed their guard duties, and helped with supervision, the remainder were divided into two groups, those who ‘bore burdens' (the fetchers and carriers) and those who built. The former bore their burdens with one hand and carried their weapons in the other. The word for weapons indicates some form of missiles, possibly therefore spears, which was why they could not carry them in their belts. The latter continued building and wore their swords in their belts. All were at the ready in case the alarm sounded, indicating an impending attack.
-20 ‘And he who sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said to the nobles, and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and large, and we are separated on the wall, one far from another, in whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort you to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
The responsibility for sounding the alarm lay in Nehemiah's hands. Attending him at all times was a trumpeter. And the instructions that he gave to the nobles, and the rulers appointed over the militia, and the people themselves, who were necessarily spread out right round the walls, was that whenever they heard the trumpet sound, there they were to gather, weapons in hand, to assist in driving back the enemy. Nor were they to be afraid, for they were to recognise that ‘our God will fight for us'. In all his preparations Nehemiah in the end totally depended on God. His final confidence was in Him, but we should note that it did not hinder him from detailed planning.
‘ So we wrought in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.'
The ‘we' here is probably Nehemiah and his servants as per Nehemiah 4:16, half of whom held spears, shields, bows and coats of mail. He and his servants played their full part in the work, whilst half of them stood at the ready for any surprise attack. And they did this from break of day until dusk. ‘Spears' is here used to indicate all the weapons that they carried in readiness, being the first in the list in Nehemiah 4:16.
‘In the same way at the same time I said to the people, “Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labour in the day.”
In the same way he called on the people to play their full part, lodging with their servants in the city at night, so that they might act as guards during the night (taking their turn on watch), and labouring during the day.
‘So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes. Every one (went with) his weapon (to) the water.'
Thus all were to be constantly at the ready, he, his brothers (fellow-Jews), his own special fully armed servants, and his own bodyguard. And this they did. None got undressed, but rather slept in readiness for instant action, and even bore their weapons when they went for water.
‘Every one (went with) his weapon (to) the water.' This is literally, in our Hebrew text (The Masoretic Text), ‘a man his weapon the water.' But in view of the constant necessity of drawing water for drinking it seems reasonable to see in this a warning against even going for water without being armed. An alternative (but less likely) is to see it as an indication that they were even to carry their weapons when relieving themselves, with ‘water' being a euphemism for urine (compare 2 Kings 18:27; Isaiah 36:12 - but there it is ‘water of the feet'). The idea is one of constant readiness.
Another possibility is AV's translation ‘saving that everyone put them off for washing', follows the Vulgate (Latin) version. This is based on repointing the Hebrew for ‘his weapon', and turning it into a verb (‘let go, put off'), but even then it is a forced rendering of what is literally ‘a man let go (put off) the water'. This then paraphrased as, ‘a man put off for the water'.
(Some make a slight emendation to the text on the basis that there is a copying error and translate, ‘everyone with his weapon on the right' (with hemin replacing hamayim (the water), that is, has his weapon within reach of his right hand in readiness for being suddenly awoken and needing it quickly. Another of many suggested alternatives is, ‘each with his weapon all the time'. But all such emendations are necessarily intelligent guesswork and should be avoided where possible).