Ezra 3
1
And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities,
the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
2
Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel,
to offer burnt-offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of
God.
3
And they set the altar upon its base; for fear was upon them because of the peoples
of the countries: and they offered burnt-offerings thereon to YHWH, even burnt-offerings
morning and evening.
4
And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and [offered] the daily
burnt-offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
5
and afterward the continual burnt-offering, and [the offerings] of the new moons,
and of all the set feasts of YHWH that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly
offered a freewill-offering to YHWH.
6
From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt-offerings to YHWH:
but the foundation of the temple of YHWH was not yet laid.
7
They gave money also to the masons, and to the carpenters; and food, and drink, and
oil, to them of Sidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar-trees from Lebanon to the
sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.
8
Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second
month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the
rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out
of the captivity to Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and
upward, to have the oversight of the work of the house of YHWH.
9
Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of
Judah, together, to have the oversight of the workmen in the house of God: the sons
of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.
10
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of YHWH, they set the priests
in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to
praise YHWH, after the order of David king of Israel.
11
And they sang one to another in praising and giving thanks to YHWH, [saying], For
he is good, for his lovingkindness [endures] for ever toward Israel. And all the people
shouted with a great shout, when they praised YHWH, because the foundation of the
house of YHWH was laid.
12
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers` [houses], the old men that
had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their
eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
13
so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise
of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise
was heard afar off.