¹⁵ When our enemies heard that their plan was known to us and that God had frustrated their strategy, all of us returned to the wall, each man to his own work. ¹⁶ From that day on, half of the young men who were serving under me were doing the work, and half of them were holding shields, spears, and bows and wearing armor. The officers were stationed behind the whole house of Judah. ¹⁷ The people who were building the wall and those who were carrying the materials for building were doing their work with one hand, while the other hand held a weapon. ¹⁸ As they built, the builders were armed, each man with his sword on his hip. The man who sounded the ram’s horn was next to me.

¹⁹ Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “There is a lot of work, and it is spread out, and we are separated along the wall—all the people are far away from each other. ²⁰ Wherever you hear the sound of the ram’s horn, gather with us at that spot. Our God will fight for us.”

²¹ So we continued to work with half of the people holding spears, from the crack of dawn until the stars came out. ²² Also at that time I said to the people, “Let every man and his servant spend the night in Jerusalem. They will serve as a guard for us at night, and in the daytime they will work.”

²³ Neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who were behind me—none of us took off our clothes. Each man had his weapon in his hand, even when getting a drink of water.^[a]