Nehemiah 4:21 Commentary and Bible Study

‘So we laboured in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising in the morning till the stars appeared.’ How determined the enemies were to stop this work with all its fervour in so short a time, and how determined the people of Jerusalem needed to be to resist them. They were outnumbered and building against the clock, as it were. The heaps of rubble had turned into walls, already halfway up, soon to be completed, a secure city from which Samaritans would be expelled altogether, where the worship of God would be resumed, and the testimony continue. This was a time when special measures were called for, and so the work was done at the expense of the personal comfort. They had to be ready for an assault at any time, and so they remained on duty day and night. We read on of some of the devices that their enemies employed in the following chapters.