Ezra 3:1-13
3 When the seventh+ month arrived the sons of Israel were in [their] cities. And the people began to gather themselves as one+ man to Jerusalem.+
2 And Jeshʹu·a*+ the son of Je·hozʹa·dak* and his brothers the priests and Ze·rubʹba·bel+ the son of She·alʹti·el+ and his brothers proceeded to rise up and build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt sacrifices upon it, according to what is written+ in the law of Moses the man of the [true] God.*
3 So they established the altar firmly upon its own site,+ for fright [came] upon them* because of the peoples of the lands,*+ and they began offering up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah upon it, the burnt sacrifices of the morning and of the evening.+
4 Then they held the festival of booths+ according to what is written,+ with the burnt sacrifices day by day in number according to the rule of what was due each day.+
5 And afterward there was the constant burnt offering+ and that for the new moons+ and for all the sanctified festival+ seasons of Jehovah and for everyone that willingly offered a voluntary+ offering to Jehovah.
6 From the first day of the seventh month+ on they started to offer up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah, when the foundation of Jehovah’s temple* itself had not yet been laid.
7 And they proceeded to give money+ to the cutters+ and to the craftsmen,+ and eatables+ and drink and oil+ to the Si·doʹni·ans+ and the Tyrʹi·ans,+ to bring cedar timbers from Lebʹa·non+ to the sea at Jopʹpa,+ according to the permission granted by Cyrus+ the king of Persia to them.
8 And in the second year of their coming to the house of the [true] God at Jerusalem, in the second month,+ Ze·rubʹba·bel+ the son of She·alʹti·el+ and Jeshʹu·a+ the son of Je·hozʹa·dak and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity+ to Jerusalem started; and they now put in positions the Levites+ from twenty years of age upward to act as supervisors over the work of the house of Jehovah.+
9 Accordingly Jeshʹu·a,+ his sons and his brothers, [and] Kadʹmi·el and his sons, the sons of Judah,* stood up as one group to act as supervisors over the doers of the work in the house of the [true] God, [also] the sons of Henʹa·dad,+ their sons and their brothers, the Levites.
10 When the builders laid the foundation+ of the temple of Jehovah, then the priests in official clothing,+ with the trumpets,+ and the Levites the sons of Aʹsaph,+ with the cymbals,+ stood up to praise Jehovah according to the direction+ of David the king of Israel.
11 And they began to respond by praising+ and giving thanks to Jehovah, “for he is good,+ for his loving-kindness* toward Israel is to time indefinite.”+ As for all the people, they shouted with a loud shout+ in praising Jehovah over the laying of the foundation of the house of Jehovah.
12 And many of the priests+ and the Levites and the heads of the paternal+ houses, the old men that had seen the former house,+ were weeping+ with a loud voice at the laying of the foundation+ of this house before their eyes, while many others were raising the voice in shouting for joy.+
13 Hence the people were not distinguishing the sound of the shout of rejoicing+ from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting with a loud shout, and the sound itself was heard even to a great distance.
Footnotes
^ “Jesus,” LXX.
^ “The man of the [true] God.” Heb., ʼish-ha·ʼElo·himʹ. See App 1F.
^ “For [it was] with enmity against them from the peoples of the lands,” by a slight correction of M.
^ Lit., “for [it was] with fright upon them,” M.
^ Or, “loyal love.”
