Nehemiah 12:43

43 They offered on that day great sacrifices and rejoiced because God brought great joy to them. And the women and children also rejoiced. The joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

Nehemiah 12:43 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 12:43

Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced,
&c.] Or many sacrifices, as Ben Melech interprets it; and these perhaps of the larger sort of cattle, oxen; and which, at least many of them, being peace offerings, the people feasted on them, so that it was a festival day:

for God had made them rejoice with great joy;
on account of the wall being set up all around, and so were in greater safety from their enemies:

the wives also and the children rejoiced;
while the priests blew the trumpets, and the singers sung and played on their instruments, the women and children gave loud shouts for joy:

so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off;
as at the laying of the foundation of the temple, ( Ezra 3:13 ) .

Nehemiah 12:43 In-Context

41 and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah with the trumpets;

42 Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malkijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jizrahiah the chief officer.

43 They offered on that day great sacrifices and rejoiced because God brought great joy to them. And the women and children also rejoiced. The joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

44 On that day men were appointed for the storehouse rooms, the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, in order to gather in them from the fields of the cities the requirements of the law for the priests and Levites; for the joy of Judah [was] upon the priests and Levites standing there.

45 They kept the responsibility of their God and the responsibility of cleansing, and the singers and gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon.