Old Testament · Ezra

Ezra 3

Sacrifices Restored

1And the seventh month arrived, and the sons of Israel were in the cities, and the people gathered as one man^a to Jerusalem.

2And Yeshua son of Jozadak rose up, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up upon it burnt offerings, as written in the Torah of Moses the man of God. 3And they established the altar upon its bases, for fear was upon them from the peoples of the lands, and they offered up upon it burnt offerings to the LORD, burnt offerings for the morning and for the evening.

4And they kept the feast^b of booths as written, and the burnt offering of day by day in number, according to the judgment^c, the matter of a day in its day.

5And after this, the continual burnt offering, and for the new moons, and for all the appointed times (moedim) of the LORD that were sanctified, and for everyone offering a freewill offering to the LORD.

6From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer up burnt offerings to the LORD, but the temple of the LORD had not been founded. 7And they gave money to the hewers and to the craftsmen, and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant of Cyrus king of Persia upon them.

Temple Restoration Begins

8And in the second year of their coming to the house of God, to Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Yeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem began; and they appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to oversee the work of the house of the LORD. 9And Yeshua stood up, his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, as one, to oversee those doing the work in the house of God; the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brothers the Levites.

10And the builders founded the temple of the LORD, and they set up the priests clothed with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD by the hands of David king of Israel. 11And they answered in praising and in giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his lovingkindness is forever upon Israel." And all the people shouted a great shout in praising to the LORD because the house of the LORD was founded.

12But many from the priests and the Levites and heads of the fathers, the old men who had seen the first house, were weeping with a great voice at the founding of this house before their eyes; and many were lifting up a voice with a shout in joy. 13And the people were not recognizing the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting a great shout, and the sound was heard from afar.