So neither I, nor my brethren,.... The nobles and rulers:nor my servants; his domestic servants that waited upon him:nor the men of the guard which followed me; his bodyguard, which attended him as a commissioner of the king of Persia for state and grandeur:none of us put off our clothes; at night when they laid themselves down to sleep, but laid in, them, that they might be ready upon an alarm made:saving that everyone put them off for washing; not for common washing, because dirty, but for washing on account of ceremonial uncleanness, which required washing both of bodies and garments, see Le 15:5, &c.
and the Vulgate Latin version expresses it by baptism, as the apostle calls such ceremonial ablutions in Heb 6:2. It is in the margin of our Bibles, "everyone went with his weapon for water"; when he went to Siloam, or any other place, for water, he took a weapon with him to defend himself upon occasion; which is no bad sense of the words.
Noldius renders the words, "everyone with his weapon (and) water"; both were at his bolster, ready, if wanted, see 1Sa 26:11. Ebr. Concord. Partic. p. 322.