Ezra 3–4

CHAPTER 3

The Altar is Built and Daily Offerings Begin

¹Then the seventh month came, and ^athe sons of Israel were in the cities. And the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.

²Then ^aJeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests, and ^bZerubbabel the son ^cof Shealtiel and his brothers arose and ^dbuilt the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, ^eas it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

³So they set up the altar on its foundation, for ^1athey were terrified because of the peoples of the lands; and they ^boffered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, burnt offerings morning and evening.

⁴They celebrated the ^aFeast of ¹Booths, ^bas it is written, and offered ²the fixed number of burnt offerings daily, ^caccording to the legal judgment, as each day required;

⁵and afterward there was a ^acontinual burnt offering, also ^bfor the new moons and ^cfor all the appointed times of Yahweh that were set apart as holy, and from everyone who offered a freewill offering to Yahweh.

⁶From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to Yahweh, but the foundation of the temple of Yahweh had not been laid.

⁷Then they gave money to the masons and ¹carpenters, and ^afood, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, ^bto bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea at ^cJoppa, according to the permission they had ²from ^dCyrus king of Persia.

The Foundation of the Temple of Yahweh

⁸Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month, ^aZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and ^bappointed the Levites from twenty years and older to direct the work of the house of Yahweh.

⁹Then ^aJeshua with his sons and brothers stood united with Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of ¹Judah and the sons of Henadad with their sons and brothers the Levites, to direct those who do the work in the house of God.

¹⁰So the builders ^alaid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh. Then ¹the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Yahweh ^baccording to the ²directions of King David of Israel.

^11aAnd they sang, praising and giving thanks to Yahweh, saying, “^bFor He is good, for His lovingkindness endures forever upon Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Yahweh because the foundation of the house of Yahweh was laid.

¹²Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, ^athe old men who had seen the first house of Yahweh, were weeping with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many in loud shouts with gladness were raising their voice,

¹³so that the people could not distinguish the ¹voices of the shouting of gladness from the ²voices of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting with a loud shout, and those ³voices were heard far away.

CHAPTER 4

Adversaries Discourage the Work

¹Then ^athe adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that ^bthe people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel,

²so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; ^aand we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of ^bEsarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”

³But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “^aYou have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^bas King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”

⁴So ^athe people of the land ¹discouraged the people of Judah and dismayed them from building,

⁵and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶Now in the reign of ^1aAhasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷And in the days of ¹Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the ²text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated ^afrom Aramaic.

The Letter to King Artaxerxes

⁸¹Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows—

⁹then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and ^athe rest of their colleagues, the judges and ^bthe lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites,

¹⁰and the rest of the nations, which the great and honorable ¹Osnappar took away into exile and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region beyond the ²River. ^aAnd now—

¹¹this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him:

“To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and now—

¹²let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding ^athe rebellious and evil city and ^bare completing the walls and repairing the foundations.

¹³“Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are completed, ^athey will not give tribute, custom, or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.

¹⁴“Now because we ¹are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s ²dishonor, therefore we have sent and made known to the king,

¹⁵that a search be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will find in the record books and come to know that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days; therefore that city was laid waste.

¹⁶“We make known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls completed, as a result you will have no portion in the province beyond the River.”

A Decree Makes the Men Stop Rebuilding

¹⁷Then the king sent an edict to Rehum the commander, to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and in the rest of the provinces beyond the River: “Peace. And now—

¹⁸the document which you sent to us has been ^aplainly read before me.

¹⁹“So a decree has been ¹issued by me, and a search has been made and it has been found that that city has lifted itself up against the kings in past days, that rebellion and revolt have been perpetrated in it,

^20athat strong kings have been over Jerusalem, even rulers in all the provinces ^bbeyond the River, and that ^ctribute, custom, and toll were given to them.

²¹“Now issue a decree to make those men stop, that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me.

²²“And beware of being negligent in doing this matter; why should harm increase to damage the kings?”

²³Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes’ document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force and military.

²⁴Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.