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Ezra 3:1-13 — Rebuilding the Altar and the Temple Foundation

Ezra.3.1-13

¹And when the seventh month arrived, and the Israelites were in the towns, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. ²Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, rose up and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. ³They set up the altar on its foundation, because dread was upon them from the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings for the morning and for the evening. ⁴They kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of each day required. ⁵And afterward they offered the regular burnt offering, and those for the New Moons, and for all the appointed sacred feasts of the LORD, and for everyone who willingly offered a freewill offering to the LORD. ⁶From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the temple of the LORD had not yet been laid. ⁷So they gave money to the masons and to the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to the authorization they had from Cyrus king of Persia. ⁸Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Jeshua the 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 the work. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the LORD. ⁹Then Jeshua stood up with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to supervise the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and their sons and their brothers the Levites. ¹⁰When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their apparel stood with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. ¹¹And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: '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. ¹²But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, the old men who had seen the first house , wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, ¹³so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting with a great shout, and the sound was heard from afar.

Translation Notes

4/11/2026

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