Nehemiah 4 · a question people ask
If God would fight for them, why the swords?
The chapter says both, often in the same verse, and never sets one against the other. "We made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night" (4:9). "Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers" (4:14). "Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally there to us. Our God will fight for us" (4:20). When the enemies' plan came to nothing, the chapter says who did it: "God had brought their counsel to nothing" (4:15). And from then on, "everyone with one of his hands did the work, and with the other held his weapon" (4:17). The chapter tells of no battle: the builders stay armed and keep building (4:16-23). This study draws no rule from it beyond what the verses say.
The verses
“But we made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night because of them.”
“Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally there to us. Our God will fight for us.” So we did the work. Half of the people held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time I said to the people, “Let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day.” So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes. Everyone took his weapon to the water.”