Esdras 3:12

12 Y muchos de los sacerdotes y de los levitas y de las cabezas de los padres, viejos, que habían visto la casa primera, viendo fundar esta casa, lloraban en alta voz, mientras muchos otros daban grandes gritos de alegría

Esdras 3:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 3:12

But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers,
who were ancient men
Seventy or eighty years of age:

that had seen the first house;
the temple built by Solomon, as they very well might, since then it had been destroyed but fifty two years; for the seventy years captivity are to be reckoned from the fourth of Jehoiakim, when it began, and which was eighteen years before the destruction of the temple; the beginning of the next clause,

when in the foundation,
according to the Hebrew accents, is to be connected with this,

that had seen the first house;
not when first founded, for that was five hundred years ago, but in "its foundation"; they saw it standing upon its foundation, in all its glory, and so the Septuagint version; and we may read on, when

this house was before their eyes, wept with a loud voice;
seeing what it was like to be by the foundation now laid, and was in their sight as nothing in comparison of the former; see ( Haggai 2:3 ) but Aben Ezra connects this clause as we do,

when the foundation of this house was laid;
not but that the dimensions of this house strictly taken were as large as the former: see ( Ezra 6:3 Ezra 6:4 ) , but not the courts and appendages to it: besides, what might affect them, there was no likelihood of its being so richly decorated with gold and silver as the former temple, and many things would be wanting in it, as the Urim and Thummim

and many shouted aloud for joy;
of the younger sort, who had never seen the grandeur of the first temple, and were highly delighted with the beginning of this, and the hope of seeing it finished.

Esdras 3:12 In-Context

10 Y los albañiles del templo del SEÑOR echaron los cimientos; y pusieron a los sacerdotes vestidos de sus ropas, con trompetas, y a los levitas hijos de Asaf con címbalos, para que alabaran al SEÑOR, según la ordenanza de David rey de Israel

11 Y cantaban, alabando y confesando al SEÑOR, y decían: Porque es bueno, porque para siempre es su misericordia sobre Israel. Y todo el pueblo gritaba con gran grito, alabando al SEÑOR, porque la Casa del SEÑOR era acimentada

12 Y muchos de los sacerdotes y de los levitas y de las cabezas de los padres, viejos, que habían visto la casa primera, viendo fundar esta casa, lloraban en alta voz, mientras muchos otros daban grandes gritos de alegría

13 Y el pueblo no podía discernir la voz del grito de alegría, de la voz del lloro del pueblo; porque el pueblo gritaba con gran grito, y la voz se oía hasta lejos