(40) In the house of God.--They stood first outside, but afterwards entered to present their offerings. But the main interest of the day was the professional worship under the open heavens.

Verse 40. - So stood the two companies. Having performed their respective portions of the perambulation, and reached the central portion of the eastern wall, opposite the temple area, the two companies came to a stand, one over against the other, not in the house of God, but by it, or near it, which is a meaning that the preposition ב often has. The half of the rulers. Compare ver. 32.

12:27-43 All our cities, all our houses, must have holiness to the Lord written upon them. The believer should undertake nothing which he does not dedicate to the Lord. We are concerned to cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts, when any work for God is to pass through them. Those that would be employed to sanctify others, must sanctify themselves, and set themselves apart for God. To those who are sanctified, all their creature-comforts and enjoyments are made holy. The people greatly rejoiced. All that share in public mercies, ought to join in public thanksgivings.So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God,.... Having made their procession on the wall in different ways, they met in the temple, that is, in the great court of it, for no other would hold them:

and I, and the half of the rulers with me; Nehemiah, and the other half with Hoshaiah, Nehemiah 12:32.