Nehemiah 4:21 (DBY)

Passage

And we laboured in the work; and half of them held the spears from the rising of the dawn till the stars appeared.

Nearby Context

Nehemiah 4:19 And I said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and extended, and we are scattered upon the wall, one far from another:

Nehemiah 4:20 in what place ye hear the sound of the trumpet, thither shall ye assemble to us; our God will fight for us.

Nehemiah 4:21 And we laboured in the work; and half of them held the spears from the rising of the dawn till the stars appeared.

Nehemiah 4:22 Likewise at the same time I said to the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and [be for] labour in the day.

Nehemiah 4:23 And neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard that followed me, none of us put off our garments: every one had his weapon on his right side.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "laboured", "half", "held", "spears", "rising", "dawn", "till", and "stars". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "laboured" and "half", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "in what place ye hear the sound..." into verse 22's "Likewise at the same time I said...", so "laboured" and "half" belong inside that flow. In Nehemiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "laboured" and "half" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.