Given the long hours of work, we can well understand that exhaustion overcame the workers as soon as they finished the job so that they fell asleep without washing up or finding a change of clothes for relaxation purposes. Nehemiah and his staff worked non-stop, taking time only to sleep. In so doing, they led by example.
23 So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.