And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without - outside the court fronting the temple, where stood the altar of burnt offering; the men and women worshipping in separate courts, but the altar visible to all.
At the time of incense - which was offered twice every day, along with the morning and evening sacrifice, at the third and ninth hours (or 9 A.M. and 3 P.M.) - a beautiful symbol, fist of the acceptableness of the sacrifice which was then burning on the altar of burnt offering, with coals from which the incense laid on the golden altar was burnt (Leviticus 16:12-13); but next, of the acceptableness of themselves and all their services, as "living sacrifices" presented daily to God. Hence, the language of Psalms 141:2, "Let my prayer come up before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice;" and see Genesis 8:3-4. That the acceptableness of this incense-offering depended on the expiatory virtue presupposed in the burnt offering, and pointed to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, is clear from Isaiah 6:6-7, where the symbolic action of touching the prophet's lips with a live coal from off the altar is interpreted to mean the "taking away of his iniquity, and the purging of his sin," in order that his lips might be clean to speak for God.