Nehemiah 4:22

22 Also at that time I told the people, "Let everyone with a servant stay the night within Yerushalayim, so that at night they can be a guard for us, even as they work during the day."

Nehemiah 4:22 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 4:22

Likewise at the same time said I unto the people
That were at work upon the wall:

let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem;
every builder had a servant, or a lad, as the word signifies, to wait upon him, to bring mortar or stone, or what he wanted; and some of these builders, with their lads, came out of the country towns and villages in the morning, and returned at night; now Nehemiah proposed, for the safety of the city and its walls, that for the present they would lodge in Jerusalem:

that in the night they may be a guard unto us, and labour on the day;
might help to protect them in the night, should they be surprised with the enemy, and be ready for their work in the daytime.

Nehemiah 4:22 In-Context

20 But wherever you are, when you hear the sound of the shofar, come to that place, to us. Our God will fight for us!"

21 So we kept doing the work. Half of them held spears from daybreak until the stars appeared.

22 Also at that time I told the people, "Let everyone with a servant stay the night within Yerushalayim, so that at night they can be a guard for us, even as they work during the day."

23 I, my kinsmen, my servants and my bodyguards never took off our clothes, and everyone who went to get water took his weapon.