Charles Ellicott Commentary Nehemiah 4:23

"So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard that followed me, none of us put off our clothes, every one [went with] his weapon [to] the water." — Nehemiah 4:23 (ASV)

Except that everyone took them off for washing. —This rendering is very improbable, as the words are simply: “every man his weapon water.” Some interpret that “each man’s weapon was his water”: evidently too subtle a turn of thought. It is best, on the whole, to supply the ellipsis: “every man went with his weapon to the water.”