So we built the wall, and joined it all together unto the half thereof: and the heart of the people was excited to work.

And we build the wall, and all the wall is joined, unto its half, and the people have a heart to work.

So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was joined together half-way up: for the people were working hard.

So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height: for the people had a mind to work.

And so we built the wall, and we joined it together, even to the unfinished portion. And the heart of the people was stirred up for the work.

Unto the half thereof - i. e. to half the intended height.

For the people had a mind to work - The original is very emphatic: ויהי לב לעם לעשות vayehi leb leam laasoth, "For the people had a heart to work." Their hearts were engaged in it; and where the heart is engaged, the work of God goes on well. The whole of this 6th verse is omitted by the Septuagint.

So built we the wall,.... Went on in building it, notwithstanding their scoffs and threats:
and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof; it was carried all round the city to half the height of it:
for the people had a mind to work; their heart was in it, they had a good will to it, and they made haste to finish it.

all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof--The whole circuit of the wall had been distributed in sections to various companies of the people, and was completed to the half of the intended height.

(3:38; 4:1-2)
The Jews continued to build without heeding the ridicule of their enemies, "and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof," i.e., the wall was so far repaired throughout its whole circumference, that no breach or gap was left up to half its height; "and the people had a heart to work," i.e., the restoration went on so quickly because the people had a mind to work.
The attempts of the enemies to hinder the work by force, and Nehemiah's precautions against them. - When the enemies learnt that the restoration of the wall was evidently getting on, they conspired together to fight against Jerusalem (Nehemiah 4:1 and Nehemiah 4:2). The Jews then prayed to God, and set a watch (Nehemiah 4:3). When the courage of the people began to fail, and their enemies spread a report of sudden attack being imminent, Nehemiah furnished the people on the wall with weapons, and encouraged the nobles and rulers to fight boldly for their brethren, their children, and their possessions (vv. 4-8). The Arabians, Ammonites, and Ashdodites are here enumerated as enemies, besides Sanballat and Tobiah (vv. 2, 10, 19). The Arabians were incited to hostilities against the Jews by Geshem (vv. 11, 19), and the Ammonites by Tobiah; the Ashdodites, the inhabitants of the city and territory of Ashdod, in the coast district of Philistia, were perhaps encouraged to renew their old hatred of Judah by Sanballat the Horonite. When these enemies heard that the walls of Jerusalem were bandaged, i.e., that the breaches and damages in the wall were repaired, they were filled with wrath. The biblical expression, to lay on a bandage, here and 2-Chronicles 24:13; Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 30:17; Jeremiah 33:6, is derived from the healing of wounds by means of a bandage, and is explained by the sentence following: that the breaches began to be closed or stopped. The enemies conspired together to march against Jerusalem and injure it. לו, because the people of the town are meant. תּועה occurs but once more, viz., in Isaiah 32:6, in the sense of error; here it signifies calamities, for, as Aben Ezra well remarks, qui in angustiis constitutus est, est velut errans, qui nescit quid agat quove se vertat.

The half - Unto half its height.