43 Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.
And they sacrificed great victims on that day, etc. On that day of perpetual light (about which Zachariah said: And there shall be one day which is known to the Lord, not day nor night: that is, removed from the experience of passing times) the chosen sacrifice great victims to the Lord, namely those which the Psalmist, tasting in the hope of future things, said: You have broken my bonds, I will offer to you the sacrifice of praise (Psalm 115). He also rightly shows where he hoped to sacrifice this victim, when he immediately adds: I will pay my vows to the Lord in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the presence of all his people, in the midst of you, Jerusalem. For in the midst of Jerusalem we render our vows to God in the presence of all his people, when in the heavenly homeland with the entire assembly of saints gathered, we offer him those praises for which we now groan and which we daily long for with a desire for grace.
For God had made them rejoice with great joy, etc. These things truly pertain to the edification of that holy city which is in the future, in which God is the king who gladdens His citizens with His presence, indeed with great joy; hence, when the king was born in the flesh, the angel appearing to the shepherds said: Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people (Luke 2). This is in clear distinction from human joy, which is both small and transient; and therefore, the wise should consider it of little value. However, in that joy which God grants to His city, it is well mentioned that the wives of the citizens, together with their children, also rejoiced; because at the time of the resurrection, not only those who had either preached the word or steadfastly endured in the works of faith will receive the great reward of their great labors, but also the weaker ones, those who shared the same faith, will rejoice together with them in the same reception of eternal life. For the Lord blessed all those who feared Him, the small together with the great (Psalm 115). This dedication can also be understood in this life metaphorically, in some chosen ones, who, having purified the eye of the heart, are worthy to contemplate part of the joys which the whole Church will fully receive in the future, like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the other prophets; like the apostles (Matthew 17), who rejoiced to see the Lord glorified on the holy mountain; like Paul (2 Corinthians 12), who was worthy to be caught up into paradise and the third heaven; like John in the Apocalypse, who, the higher they ascended into the lofty heights of the heavenly city, the more clearly they took care to sing the praises of the Lord and always to offer Him the greatest sacrifices of good works.
[AD 735] Bede on Nehemiah 12:43