Ezra 3

1 The seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in their cities; and the people gathered as one man at Jerusalem. 2 Then Jeshua son of Jozadak stood up, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to bring up whole burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. 3 And they made the altar ready on its own base, for dread of the peoples of the lands was upon them; and a whole burnt offering went up on it to the Lord, morning and evening. [a]

4 And they kept the Feast of Tents, as it is written, and whole burnt offerings day by day in number, as the judgment was — the count for each day on its own day — [b] 5 and after that the standing whole burnt offering, and the offerings for the new moons and for all the feasts made holy, and for everyone who gave the Lord a gift of his own choice. 6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to bring up whole burnt offerings to the Lord; but the house of the Lord had not been founded. 7 And they gave money to the stonecutters and to the carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, by the grant that Cyrus king of the Persians made them. [c]

8 And in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel made a beginning, and Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem; and they set the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, over those who did the work in the house of the Lord. 9 And Jeshua stood, and his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons the sons of Judah, over those who did the work in the house of God — the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brothers the Levites. [d]

10 And they laid the foundation for the building of the house of the Lord; and the priests stood in their robes with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord as David king of Israel had laid it down. [e] 11 And they answered one another with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For it is good, for his mercy to Israel is forever.” And all the people raised a loud shout in praise to the Lord over the founding of the house of the Lord. [f]

12 But many of the priests and the Levites, and the leaders of the fathers’ houses, the elders, who had seen the first house on its foundation and had this house before their eyes, were weeping with a loud voice; and the crowd shouted with gladness to lift up a song. [g] 13 And the people could not tell the sound of the glad shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people cried out with a loud voice, and the sound was heard far off.