Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Nehemiah 12:31
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, etc.] Which was so broad as to walk upon it, and there was a procession of the princes on it at its dedication, and here is described the manner of it; the princes of Benjamin must be included here: and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks; he divided the people who were met together to praise God on this occasion into two companies: whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall; that is, on the southern part of it: towards the dung gate; of which (see <160213>Nehemiah 2:13) some Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Ben Melech, give a different sense of twdwt yt, which we render “two companies”, and take them to be two eucharistical loaves of leavened bread, with which a rite or ceremony was performed at the enlargement of a court or city; at the utmost boundary of which those were carried, and one was eaten and the other burnt f79; which rite is thus described by Maimonides f80, ç “how do they add to a city? the sanhedrim make two eucharistical sacrifices, and they take the leavened bread in them, and the sanhedrim go after the two eucharistical sacrifices, which follow one another, and they stand with harps, and psalteries, and cymbals, at every corner and at every stone in Jerusalem, and say, I will extol thee, for thou hast lifted up, etc. ((<193001>Psalm 30:1)) until they come to the end of the place they consecrate, there they stand and eat the thanksgiving loaf, one of the two, and the other is burnt.”
How to use this source
This excerpt is attributed to its named commentary. It is included as a historical study resource and should be evaluated in light of Scripture and other relevant evidence.
