Ezra 3:6

6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD’s temple had not yet been laid.

Ezra 3:6 in Other Translations

KJV
6 From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.
ESV
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.
NLT
6 Fifteen days before the Festival of Shelters began, the priests had begun to sacrifice burnt offerings to the LORD . This was even before they had started to lay the foundation of the LORD ’s Temple.
MSG
6 They began offering Whole-Burnt-Offerings to God from the very first day of the seventh month, even though The Temple of God's foundation had not yet been laid.
CSB
6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, even though the foundation of the Lord's temple had not [yet] been 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 Etsi, Michaelis.

Ezra 3:6 In-Context

4 Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day.
5 After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the LORD, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the LORD.
6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD’s temple had not yet been laid.
7 Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.
8 In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the LORD.
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