Ezra 3
1 After the Israeli people [returned to Israel, and] had begun to live in their towns, (in the autumn of/after the hot season ended in) that year, they all gathered together in Jerusalem.
And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people came together like one man to Jerusalem.
2 Then Jeshua, the son of Jehozadak, and his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his friends, all began to rebuild the altar of God, the one whom the Israeli people [worshiped]. They did that in order that they could sacrifice burned offerings on it, according to what the prophet Moses had written in the laws [that God gave to him].
Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, got up and made the altar of the God of Israel for burned offerings as is recorded in the law of Moses, the man of God.
3 Even though they were afraid of the people who were already living in that area, they rebuilt the altar at the same place [where the previous altar had been]. Before they started to lay the foundation of Yahweh’s temple, [the priests] started to burn sacrifices to Yahweh [on the altar]. They offered sacrifices every morning and every evening. Fifteen days after [they started to offer these sacrifices], the people celebrated the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters, as [Moses] had commanded them to do in the laws [that God gave to him]. Each day the priests offered the sacrifices [that were required] for that day. In addition, they presented the regular burned offerings and the offerings [that were required] for the New Moon Festivals and the other festivals that they celebrated each year to [honor] Yahweh. They also brought other offerings only because they desired to bring them, [not because they were required to bring them].
They put the altar on its base; for fear was on them because of the people of the countries: and they made burned offerings on it to the Lord, even burned offerings morning and evening.
And they kept the feast of tents, as it is recorded, making the regular burned offerings every day by number, as it is ordered; for every day what was needed.
And after that, the regular burned offering and the offerings for the new moons and all the fixed feasts of the Lord which had been made holy, and the offering of everyone who freely gave his offering to the Lord.
From the first day of the seventh month they made a start with the burned offerings, but the base of the Temple of the Lord had still not been put in its place.
7 Then the Israelis hired masons and carpenters, and they bought [logs from] cedar trees from the people of Tyre and Sidon [cities], and they gave those people food and wine and olive oil for the logs. They brought the logs down from [the mountains in] Lebanon [to the Mediterranean seacoast and then floated them along the coast of the Sea, ] to Joppa. King Cyrus permitted them to do that. [Then the logs were brought from Joppa inland up to Jerusalem].
And they gave money to the stoneworkers and woodworkers; and meat and drink and oil to the people of Zidon and of Tyre, for the transport of cedar-trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had given them authority to do.
8 The Israelis started to rebuild the temple in the (spring/time before the hot season) of the second year after they returned to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel and Jeshua and all the people who had returned to Jerusalem worked on the building. All the (Levites/men who did work in the temple) supervised this work.
Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites, of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the work of the house of the Lord.
9 Jeshua and his sons and his other relatives, and Kadmiel and his sons, who were descendants of Hodaviah, also helped to supervise the work. The family of Henadad, who were also all Levites, joined with them in supervising this work.
Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, together took up the work of overseeing the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites.
10 When the builders finished laying the foundation of the temple, the priests put on their robes and stood in their places, blowing their trumpets. Then the Levites, who were descendants of Asaph, clashed/banged their cymbals to praise Yahweh, just as King David had [many years previously] told [Asaph and the other musicians] to do.
And when the builders put in position the base of the Temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, took their places with horns, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with brass instruments, to give praise to the Lord in the way ordered by David, king of Israel.
11 They praised Yahweh and thanked him, and they sang this song about him: “He is very good [to us]! He faithfully loves us Israeli people, and he will love us forever.” Then all the people shouted loudly, praising Yahweh because they had finished laying the foundation of Yahweh’s temple.
And they gave praise to the Lord, answering one another in their songs and saying, For he is good, for his mercy to Israel is eternal. And all the people gave a great cry of joy, when they gave praise to the Lord, because the base of the Lord's house was put in place.
12 Many of the [old] priests, Levites, and leaders of families remembered [what] the first temple [was like], and they cried aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid [because they knew that the new temple would not be as beautiful as the first temple]. But the other people shouted joyfully.
But a number of the priests and Levites and the heads of families, old men who had seen the first house, when the base of this house was put down before their eyes, were overcome with weeping; and a number were crying out with joy:
13 The shouting and the crying was very loud; [even people] far away could hear it.
So that in the ears of the people the cry of joy was mixed with the sound of weeping; for the cries of the people were loud and came to the ears of those who were a long way off.
