2
Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and
1Zerubbabel the son of
2Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it,
3as it is written in the Law of Moses the
4man of God.
3
They set the altar in its place,
5for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and
6they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.
4
7And they kept the Feast of Booths,
8as it is written,
9and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required,
5
and after that the regular burnt
10offerings, the offerings at the new moon
11and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord.
6
From 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.
7
So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters,
12and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians
13to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa,
14according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
Rebuilding the Temple
8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month,
15Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and
16Jeshua 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
17appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to
18supervise the work of the house of the Lord.
9
And
19Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together
20supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the
21sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.
10
And 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,
22according to the directions of David king of Israel.
11
And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
23“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.
12
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses,
24old 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,