According to Nehemiah 4:14, Nehemiah’s addressees had been afraid,
and so Nehemiah encouraged them. By the time we get to Nehemiah 4:19, these same people had witnessed Nehemiah’s efforts to protect the builders (and so encourage them). With that new level of alertness now in place, he reveals his further plans in how the builders should proceed. By saying, The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another,
Nehemiah acknowledges that the project is huge and that the volunteers are thinly spread around the perimeter of the city. That observation is a public acknowledgement of remaining vulnerability despite the precautions Nehemiah has made. With this acknowledgement, Nehemiah is simply putting into words what he knows the people are thinking.
19 And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another.