So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.
All Commentaries on Nehemiah 4:23 Go To Nehemiah 4
Bede
AD 735
For it should be noted not only that half of the young men did the work and half were prepared to fight, but also that these same young men who were doing the work were all equipped with a sword. For so great is the ancient enemy’s craftiness, so great the fury of his malice when he fights against the church, that not only preachers of the truth but even the very people of God themselves must always keep watch against his machinations, as though standing firm in battle. For the builders gird their loins with a sword when those who take pains to persevere in good works and who take pains to govern those in their charge by means of an ordered regimen (that is, to place the living stones in the edifice of the holy city in suitable arrangement) endeavor to restrain in themselves the laxness of wanton behavior with the sharpness of God’s Word. And we should not pass over the fact that when David and Solomon were building this same city, nothing is said about armed builders or attacking adversaries; rather, the city destroyed by their wrongdoings is restored with greater labor and effort, first because the spiritual edifice, which is concerned with the salvation of souls, is such that, as soon as we are reborn in baptism through the faith and confession of the Holy Trinity, we are made, through God’s grace, his city and house without any effort of our own; but if after our ablution in the sacred font we fall back into sins through the devil’s seduction and the victorious enemy demolishes the defenses of our virtue with the fire of the vices, it is necessary for us to repair those buildings of good works that we have lost through more serious efforts of prayer, mortification, vigils, alms and a stricter life. For it is harder for us to be free of known enticements of the vices than unknown, and it takes less effort to avoid an unknown pleasure of the flesh than to reject a familiar one.
