Nehemiah 4:23

So neither I, nor my brethren,.... The nobles and rulers: nor my servants; his domestic servants that waited upon him: nor the men of the guard which followed me; his bodyguard, which attended him as

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; neither by day, nor by night, as the manner is when we go to bed; they constantly kept themselves in a readiness for fighting. Saving that every one put them off for washing; when they were to wash and cleanse themselves from some natural or moral impurity, which might befall them or their garments.

Nehemiah 4:23 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.Ver. 23. So neither I] He said not to his men, Ite, but eamus, as Caesar did; Go ye, but go we; and as Abimelech, Judges 9:48, What ye see me do, make haste and do accordingly. Velleius flattered when he said, Tiberius imperio maximus, exemplo maior. Nehemiah was so in very deed. Saving that every one put them off for washing] To keep themselves clean, and from being nasty; or otherwise, to wash themselves from legal pollutions.

(23) Saving that every one put them off for washing.—This rendering is very improbable, as the words are simply: “every man his weapon water.” Some interpret that “each man’s weapon was his water”: evidently too subtle a turn of thought. It is best, on the whole, to supply the ellipsis: “every man went with his weapon to the water.”

Verse 23. None of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.] The Hebrew for all this is only אין אנחנו פשטים בגדינו איש שלחו המים ein anachnu poshetim begadeynu ish shilcho hammayim; which Montanus translates, Non nos exuentes vestes nostras, vir missile suum aquas; "We, not putting off our garments, a man his dart to the waters." Of this latter clause what sense can be made? Let us hear what the ancient versions say. The Vulgate, Unusquisque tantum nudabatur ad baptismum, "Every one stripped himself for the bath." The Septuagint omit the latter part of this clause, And there was none of us who put off his garments. The Syriac, "None of us put off his clothes for a month each in his turn. The Arabic, "Nor did we put off our clothes, but with our arms, at the end of a month." There is a remarkable reading in one of De Rossi's MSS. אין אנחנו פשטים בגדינו משלחהעל המים, We did not lay aside our garments, but in order to send them to the washing. This is most likely the sense of the place. It is curious to see how our old versions translate the place. Coverdale: We put never of our clothes, so much as to wash ourselves. - 1535. Becke: We put never of our clothes, so muche as to washe ourselves. - 1549. Cardmarden: We put never of oure clothes no more than the other dyd theyr harnesse, save onely bycause of the water. - 1566. This shows how all interpreters have been puzzled with this vexatious clause. THE reading from De Rossi's MS., given above, is the most likely to be the true one, because it gives a good sense, which cannot be found in the Hebrew text as it now stands. The general meaning is sufficiently evident; they worked nearly day and night, only had their hours by turns for repose; this did not permit them time sufficient to undress themselves in order to take regular sleep, therefore they only put off their clothes when they were obliged to get them washed.

23. my brethren … servants … men of the guard which followed me] Nehemiah mentions in detail those in whom he had complete confidence and upon whose faithfulness the success of his project depended. These shared their leader’s vigilance and imitated his endurance. Not one of them put off his clothes the whole time that the building went on. They were prepared for an attack at any moment. ‘brethren.’ These would be the relatives of Nehemiah, cf. Nehemiah 1:2. The whole house or clan to which he belonged staunchly supported him throughout the crisis. ‘servants’ … ‘men of the guard which followed me.’ Under these two heads Nehemiah seems to describe those whom he has mentioned in Nehemiah 4:17 as ‘my servants.’ He distinguishes here between his personal attendants consisting of Jewish retainers, and the bodyguard consisting chiefly of foreigners allotted him as governor by the Persian king. saving that every one put them off for washing] R.V. every one went with his weapon to the water. R.V. marg. ‘The text is probably faulty.’ The clause has occasioned great difficulty. Literally rendered the words run, ‘each one his weapon the water.’ The LXX. omit the words, probably from inability to discover their meaning. The error in the text is therefore of very early date. The Syriac seems to have conjectured ‘days’ for ‘water.’ (a) The A.V. follows the conjecture of the Vulg. ‘unusquisque tantum nudabatur ad baptismum,’ according to which the Hebrew word for ‘his weapon’ becomes by a change of vocalization a verb = ‘they sent (i.e. cast off) each one his clothes for the water,’ i.e. in order to wash. The Hebrew however could not possibly bear this very strained interpretation. (b) Another old rendering is ‘each one his weapon was (in the place of, or equivalent to) water,’ i.e. ‘instead of washing they had each to stand fast to their arms,’ is equally improbable. (c) Another rendering ‘each one had (by his side) his weapon (and) his (draught of) water’ gives intelligible sense, but not such as can be justified by the original. (d) Ewald’s rendering, ‘the taking off of each man’s clothes was for water,’ i.e. ‘to satisfy his necessities, not to lie down to rest,’ seems very uncalled for. It is greatly to be questioned whether Nehemiah even ‘in his rough and open style’ would have introduced such an allusion or in such words. (Ewald, Hist. of Isr. vol. v. p. 156, note 1, Eng. Transl.). (e) Some moderns rendering ‘his weapon’ (shil’kho) as if it were the verb (shâl’khû) translate ‘they sent each one for water.’ They could not leave their post, and had to have the necessaries of life brought to them where they stood. This use of ‘send’ as equivalent to ‘send for,’ is scarcely supported by 2 Samuel 15:12, since here a thing and not a person is the object of the verb. Others, reading ‘shâl’khû, render, ‘Every one gave up the use of water,’ a quite inadmissible translation. (f) The R.V.

Saving ... - The text here is probably unsound. It yields no satisfactory sense. See the margin.

23. Nor my brethren — Men of his own tribe and near kinsmen. Nor my servants — See note on Nehemiah 4:16.