So we prayed to our God and posted a guard against them day and night.
Parallel translations
- WEB But we made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
- KJV Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
- NKJV Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.
- NASB But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.
- NLT But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Nehemiah and the people respond to the threat by both praying and posting a watch. They trust God while taking practical precautions.
Overview
This verse models the balance of faith and diligence: "we made our prayer" and "set a watch." Dependence on God does not cancel responsible action, nor does effort replace prayer. This wisdom anticipates the gospel pattern of resting wholly in Christ's finished work while laboring faithfully in His strength.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Pet 5:8Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- Ps 50:15Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
- Acts 4:24–30When the believers heard this, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “You made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.
- Luke 21:36So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”
- Luke 6:11–12But the scribes and Pharisees were filled with rage and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
- Matt 26:41“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
- Gen 32:28Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
- 2 Kgs 19:14–19So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
- Neh 4:11And our enemies said, “Before they know or see a thing, we will come into their midst, kill them, and put an end to the work.”
- Ps 55:16–22But I call to God, and the LORD saves me.
- Gen 32:9–12Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The rebuilt walls and renewed covenant community foreshadow the greater builder who gathers and secures a people for God, the one who declares 'I will build my church.'
How Nehemiah 4:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.