Ezra 3

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.