CHAPTER 3

¹And the seventh month arrived, and the Israelites were in the towns. And the people gathered as one man in Jerusalem. ²And Jeshua son of Jozadak with his brothers the priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers rose up, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer up burnt offerings upon it as was written in the Teaching of Moses, man of God. ³And they set the altar firm on its foundation, for they were in fear of the peoples of the lands, and they offered up upon it burnt offerings to the LORD from morning to evening. ⁴And they performed the Festival of Huts as it was written with the burnt offerings of each day in the number according to the rule each on its day, ⁵and afterward, perpetual burnt offerings for the new moons and for all the hallowed festivals of the LORD and for all who offered a freewill offering to the LORD. ⁶From the first day of the seventh month they began offering up burnt offerings to the LORD, but the temple of the LORD was not yet founded. ⁷And they gave silver to the hewers and to the craftsmen and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians to bring cedarwood from Lebanon by sea to Jaffa according to the authorization they had from Cyrus king of Persia. ⁸And in the second year of their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests, and the Levites, and all who had come from the captivity to Jerusalem began by setting up the Levites from age twenty to oversee those doing the task of the house of the LORD. ⁹And Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, to oversee those doing the task in the house of the LORD, the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their brothers the Levites. ¹⁰And the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, and they set up the priests in their vestments with trumpets and the Levites, sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the LORD, as David king of Israel had prescribed. ¹¹And they called out in praise and in acclamation to the LORD, that He was good, that His kindness to Israel was forever, and all the people raised a great shout in praise to the LORD for the laying of the foundation of the house of the LORD. ¹²And many of the priests and the Levites and the elderly patriarchal chiefs who had seen the first house on its foundation, this house, with their own eyes, were weeping loudly, and many raised their voices with shouts and rejoicing. ¹³And the people could not distinguish between the sound of the joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were raising a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.