Ezra 3:6

6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.

Ezra 3:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 3:6

From the first of the seventh month began they to offer
burnt offerings unto the Lord
And which day was not only a new moon, but a grand festival, the feast of blowing of trumpets, ( Leviticus 23:24 Leviticus 23:25 ) , and no doubt but they observed the tenth day of this month, with all the rites of it, which was the day of atonement, ( Leviticus 23:27-32 ) ,

but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid;
they began first with sacrifices, that having thereby given thanks to God for their return to their own land, and for all the benefits they enjoyed, and made atonement for their sins in a typical way, they might be the more prepared and fit for the work of building the temple; or, "though the foundation" of it was not laid ^F26, yet they offered the above sacrifices.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Etsi, Michaelis.

Ezra 3:6 In-Context

4 They kept also the feast of the tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, each thing in its day,

5 and in addition to this, the continual burnt offering and the new moons and all the sanctified feasts of the LORD and every spontaneous freewill offering unto the LORD.

6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.

7 And they gave money unto the masons and to the carpenters; and food and drink and oil unto the Zidonians and to those of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the will of Cyrus, king of Persia, over them.

8 And in the second year of their coming unto the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren, the priests and the Levites, and all those that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.