Ezra
Chapter 3
1 When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were in their towns, they all came together in Jerusalem as if they were one person.
2 Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers, stood up and built the altar of the God of Israel to make burnt offerings on it, as the law of Moses, the man of God, says.
3 They placed the altar on its stands because they were afraid of the people living nearby. They made burnt offerings to God there, both in the morning and in the evening.
4 They also celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles according to what is written, and they gave the daily burnt offerings in the right amount, following the usual practice for each day’s requirement.
5 Later, they gave the regular burnt offerings for each new moon and for all of God’s holy festivals, as well as for anyone who wanted to give a special voluntary offering to God.
6 From the first day of the seventh month, they started to give burnt offerings to God. But the base of God’s temple was not laid yet.
7 They also paid the builders and woodworkers; and provided food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they would bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, as allowed by the decree from Cyrus, king of Persia.
8 In the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and Jeshua, Jozadak’s son, began along with the other priests, Levites, and all who had returned from being captives to Jerusalem. They assigned the Levites, aged twenty and older, to start working on God’s house.
9 Jeshua stood with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the men of Judah to help the workers in God’s house; Henadad’s sons and their sons and brothers, the Levites, did the same.
10 When the workers set the foundation of God’s temple, they had the priests in their clothes with trumpets and the Levites, Asaph’s sons, with cymbals praising God, following King David of Israel’s rule.
11 They sang one by one to praise and thank God because He is good and His love for Israel lasts forever. All the people yelled loudly when they praised God because the foundation of God’s house was built.
12 But many priests, Levites, and family leaders, who were old and had seen the first temple, cried loudly when they saw the foundation of this new temple; while many others shouted with joy.
13 The people couldn’t tell the joyful shouting from the crying because they shouted so loudly, and the sound was heard far away.