Ezra 3:8–13

REBUILDING THE TEMPLE

⁸In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak,^m and the rest of their brothers, including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began to build. They appointed the Levites who were twenty years old or more to supervise the work on the Lord’s house.^{n 9}Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah and of Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites,^o joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.

TEMPLE FOUNDATION COMPLETED

¹⁰When the builders had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph,^p holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord, as King David of Israel had instructed.^{q 11}They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For he is good; his faithful love to Israel endures forever.”^r Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid.^s

¹²But many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this temple,^t but many others shouted joyfully. ¹³The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the^D weeping,^u because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away.