Chapter 3

Restoration of the Altar. ¹ When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people gathered in Jerusalem as a single entity. ² Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, set out to rebuild the altar of the God of Israel, in order to offer upon it the holocausts as prescribed in the law of Moses, the man of God.

³ Despite their fear of the peoples that surrounded them, they erected the altar on its former site, and upon it they presented burnt offerings to the Lord both morning and evening. ⁴ They also celebrated the Feast of Booths as prescribed and offered the holocausts required for each day.

^5 [a]In addition, they presented the regular burnt offerings and the sacrifices prescribed for the new moons and for the festivals sacred to the Lord, as well as all the free-will offerings made to the Lord. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month they began to present burnt offerings to the Lord, even though the foundations of the temple of the Lord had not yet been laid.

Founding of the Temple. ⁷ Then money was contributed to the masons and the carpenters, while food, drink, and oil were given to the Sidonians and the Tyrians so that they could procure cedar trees and transport them from Lebanon by sea to Jaffa, permission for which was granted by King Cyrus of Persia.

⁸ In the second month of the second year of their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, together with the rest of their brothers, the priests, the Levites, and all the people who had returned to Jerusalem from their captivity, began their project. ⁹ Jeshua, along with his sons and his brothers, together with Kadmiel and Binnui, the son of Henadad, and their sons and brethren, agreed to supervise the workers in the house of God.

¹⁰ When the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their robes with their trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with their cymbals, were stationed there to praise the Lord according to the ordinances established by King David of Israel. ¹¹ They chanted praise and offered thanksgiving to the Lord, singing:

Then all the people raised a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord had been laid.^[b]

¹² However, many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, elderly people who had seen the former house, wept loudly in sorrow when they beheld the foundations of this one, although many others shouted aloud for joy. ¹³ As a result, the people were unable to distinguish the clamor of the joyful shouts from the cries of those who were weeping. So great were the shouts and the cries that the sounds could be heard a long distance away.