Nehemiah tells the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people to fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.
If Sanballat and his friends succeed in stopping the reconstruction of Jerusalem’s walls, their families would be lost. The inference is not so much their families’ deaths as their absorption into heathen culture. Without walls to protect them from pagan influence and thought, the future is dark. This realization is why Nehemiah had wept when he first heard of Jerusalem’s plight (Nehemiah 1:4) and why he risked so much to approach the king with his request (Nehemiah 2:3).
14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”