47
When the seventh month came, and the Israelites were all in their own homes, they gathered with a single purpose in the square before the first gate toward the east.
48
Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, with his kinsmen, took their places and prepared the altar of the God of Israel,
49
to offer burnt offerings upon it, in accordance with the directions in the book of Moses the man of God.
50
And some joined them from the other peoples of the land. And they erected the altar in its place, for all the peoples of the land were hostile to them and were stronger than they; and they offered sacrifices at the proper times and burnt offerings to the Lord morning and evening.
51
They kept the festival of booths, as it is commanded in the law, and offered the proper sacrifices every day,
52
and thereafter the regular offerings and sacrifices on sabbaths and at new moons and at all the consecrated feasts.
53
And all who had made any vow to God began to offer sacrifices to God, from the new moon of the seventh month, though the temple of God was not yet built.
54
They gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food and drink
55
and carts to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, to bring cedar logs from Lebanon and convey them in rafts to the harbor of Joppa, according to the decree that they had in writing from King Cyrus of the Persians.
56
In the second year after their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with their kindred and the levitical priests and all who had come back to Jerusalem from exile;
57
and they laid the foundation of the temple of God on the new moon of the second month in the second year after they came to Judea and Jerusalem.