John Gill, on Neh 4:23

“Now I and my brethren, and my servants, and the watchmen that followed me, did not put off our clothes: only every man stripped himself when he was to be washed.”

“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 a commissioner of the king of Persia for state and grandeur: none of us put off our clothes; at night when they laid themselves down to sleep, but laid in, them, that they might be ready upon an alarm made: saving that everyone put them off for washing; not for common washing, because dirty, but for washing on account of ceremonial uncleanness, which required washing both of bodies and garments, see Lev 15:5, &c. and the Vulgate Latin version expresses it by baptism, as the apostle calls such ceremonial ablutions in Heb 6:2. It is in the margin of our Bibles, "everyone went with his weapon for water"; when he went to Siloam, or any other place, for water, he took a weapon with him to defend himself upon occasion; which is no bad sense of the words. Noldius (g) renders the words, "everyone with his weapon (and) water"; both were at his bolster, ready, if wanted, see Sa1 26:11. (g) Ebr. Concord. Partic. p. 322. Next: Nehemiah Chapter 5”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.