10 When the builders laidn the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets,o and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praisep the Lord, as prescribed by Davidq king of Israel.r 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good;

his love toward Israel endures forever.”s

And all the people gave a great shoutt of praise to the Lord, because the foundationu of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple,v weptw aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joyx from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

Opposition to the Rebuilding

4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were buildingy a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddonz king of Assyria, who brought us here.”a

3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”b

4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.a c 5 They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Later Opposition Under Xerxes and Artaxerxes

6 At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes,b d they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.e