Ezra 3
Rebuilding the Altar
1 aWhen the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and bZerubbabel the son of cShealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, das it is written in the Law of Moses the eman of God. 3They set the altar in its place, ffor fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and gthey offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 hAnd they kept the Feast of Booths, ias it is written, jand offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5and after that the regular burnt kofferings, the offerings at the new moon land at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. 6From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, mand food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians nto bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, oaccording to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.Rebuilding the Temple
8Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, pZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and qJeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They rappointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to ssupervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9And tJeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together usupervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the vsons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.10And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, waccording to the directions of David king of Israel. 11And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
x“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, yold men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
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