Neither I nor my brethren nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me: Nehemiah and those around him set the example of staying at the building sites to protect them at night. My brethren here refers to Nehemiah’s close kinsmen (see verse 14 above), my servants to his own guards (see verse 16 above), and the men of the guard who followed me perhaps to people enrolled for night duty (Clines 1984).

None of us took off our clothes: As Good News Translation makes clear, this refers to not taking off one’s clothes to sleep at night. They kept their clothes on in order to be ready for anything that might happen. Contemporary English Version says “I even slept in my work clothes at night.”

Each kept his weapon in his hand: In the Hebrew text this is literally “each his weapon the water.” The connection between “weapon” and “water” is not clear. New International Version understands this to mean that each person kept his weapon in his hand “even when he went for water.” Nouvelle Bible Segond says “Each person had only his weapons and some water.” Bible en français courant links water with clothes: “we never took off our clothes except to bathe.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives this reading a C rating. However, there is only a difference of one letter in the writing of the Hebrew words for “rught hand” and “water.” Many commentators consider that “water” must be the result of an error by a scribe when writing “right hand.” Revised Standard Version translates according to this understanding, which is recommended to translators. For in his hand, Good News Translation translates with the English idiom “at hand,” and Contemporary English Version renders it with “close by.” New Revised Standard Version and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible say “in his right hand,” which may be specified here.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Nehemiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .