Charles Ellicott Commentary Nehemiah 4:13

"Therefore set I in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places, I set [there] the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows." — Nehemiah 4:13 (ASV)

After their families. —In allusion to the ambushes of Nehemiah 4:11, Nehemiah set families together—besides the appointed guards—in the lower places, where the wall was not raised to the due height, that is, really, on the higher places, or rather, the bare places, from where enemies might be better seen. The “lower” were the “bare” places.