John Gill Commentary Nehemiah 12:31

"Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies that gave thanks and went in procession; [whereof one went] on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate:" — Nehemiah 12:31 (ASV)

Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall
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: one of which

one went on the right hand upon the wall ;
that is, on the southern part of it:

towards the dung gate ;
see (Nehemiah 2:13) some Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Ben Melech, give a different sense of (twdwt ytv) , which is rendered "two companies", and consider them to be two eucharistical loaves of leavened bread, with which a rite was performed at the enlargement of a court or city; at the utmost boundary of which these were carried, and one was eaten and the other was burnt ^F18;

This rite is thus described by Maimonides ^F19, "How do they add to a city? the Sanhedrim make two eucharistical sacrifices, and they take the leavened bread from them, and the Sanhedrim go after the two eucharistical sacrifices, which follow one another, and they stand with harps, psalteries, and cymbals, at every corner and at every stone in Jerusalem, and say, 'I will extol you, for you have lifted up' ((Psalms 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."

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FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Miss. Shebuot, c. 2. sect. 2. & Maimon, & Bartenora in ib.
• F19: Hilchot, Beth-habechirah, c. 6. sect. 12. Vid. Selden. de Synedr. l. 3. c. 13. sect. 6.