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,
1and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians
2to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa,
3according 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,
4Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and
5Jeshua 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
6appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to
7supervise the work of the house of the LORD.
9
And
8Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together
9supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the
10sons 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,
11according to the directions of David king of Israel.
11
And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD,
12"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,
13old 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,
13
so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.