So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.
None of us put off our clothes, saving that everyone put them off for washing. Many writers, with Grotius, think that they did not put off their clothes but for the ablutions required by the law. This is not the meaning. The margin rends the Hebrew text better, and gives a signification to the words in full accordance with the difficulties and dangers of the crisis: 'every one went with his weapon for water' (cf. Judges 5:11). God, when he has important public work to do, never fails to raise up instruments for accomplishing it, and in the person of Nehemiah, who, to great natural acuteness and energy, added fervent piety and heroic devotion, He provided a leader, whose high qualities fitted him for the demands of the crisis. Nehemiah's vigilance anticipated every difficulty; his prudent measures defeated every obstruction; and, with astonishing rapidity, this Jerusalem was made again "a city fortified."