Ezra 3:1-4:6

Contemporary English Version

The First Offering on the New Altar

3 During the seventh month^[a] of the year, the Israelites who had settled in their towns went to Jerusalem. ²^(A) The priest Joshua son of Jozadak, together with the other priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his relatives rebuilt the altar of Israel's God. Then they were able to offer sacrifices there by following the instructions God had given to Moses, the man of God. ³^(B) And they built the altar where it had stood before,^[b] even though they were afraid of the people who were already living around there. Then every morning and evening they burned sacrifices and offerings to the Lord.

⁴^(C) The people followed the rules for celebrating the Festival of Shelters and offered the proper sacrifices each day. ⁵^(D) They offered sacrifices to please the Lord,^[c] sacrifices at each New Moon Festival, and sacrifices at the rest of the Lord's festivals. Every offering the people had brought voluntarily was also presented to the Lord.

⁶Although work on the temple itself had not yet begun, the people started offering sacrifices on the Lord's altar on the first day of the seventh month of that year.

The Rebuilding of the Temple Begins

⁷King Cyrus of Persia had said the Israelites could have cedar trees brought from Lebanon to Joppa by sea. So they sent grain, wine, and olive oil to the cities of Tyre and Sidon as payment for these trees, and they gave money to the stoneworkers and carpenters.

⁸During the second month^[d] of the second year after the people had returned from Babylonia, they started rebuilding the Lord's temple. Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the priests, the Levites, and everyone else who had returned started working. Every Levite over 20 years of age was put in charge of some part of the work. ⁹The Levites in charge of the whole project were Joshua and his sons and relatives and Kadmiel and his sons from the family of Hodaviah.^[e] The family of Henadad worked along with them.

¹⁰^(E) When the builders had finished laying the foundation of the temple, the priests put on their robes and blew trumpets in honor of the Lord, while the Levites from the family of Asaph praised God with cymbals. All of them followed the instructions given years before by King David.^[f] ¹¹^(F) They praised the Lord and gave thanks as they took turns singing:

“The Lord is good!
His faithful love for Israel
will last forever.”

Everyone started shouting and praising the Lord because work on the foundation of the temple had begun. ¹²^(G) Many of the older priests and Levites and the heads of families wept bitterly because they remembered seeing the first temple years before. But others were so happy that they celebrated with joyful shouts. ¹³Their shouting and crying were so noisy that it all sounded alike and could be heard a long way off.

Foreigners^[g] Want To Help Rebuild the Temple

4 The enemies of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people had come back to rebuild the temple of the Lord God of Israel. ²^(H) So they went to Zerubbabel and to the family leaders and said, “Let us help! Ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria^[h] brought us here, we have worshiped your God and offered sacrifices to him.”

³But Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the family leaders answered, “You cannot take part in building a temple for the Lord our God! We will build it ourselves, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”

⁴Then the neighboring people began to do everything possible to frighten the Jews^[i] and to make them stop building. ⁵During the time that Cyrus was king and even until Darius^[j] became king, they kept bribing government officials to slow down the work.

Trouble Rebuilding Jerusalem^[k]

⁶^(I) In the first year that Xerxes was king,^[l] the neighboring people brought written charges against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Footnotes

3.1 seventh month: Tishri (also called Ethanim), the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-September to mid-October.
3.3 where it had stood before: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
3.5 sacrifices to please the Lord: In traditional translations these sacrifices are usually called “whole burnt offerings” (see Leviticus 1.1-16).
3.8 second month: Ziv, the second month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-April to mid-May.
3.9 Hodaviah: Or “Yehudah” or “Hodiah.”
3.10 King David: Ruled from about 1010 to 970 b.c.
4.1 Foreigners: People from foreign countries who had been captured by Assyrian and Babylonian kings and forced to settle in Palestine.
4.2 King Esarhaddon of Assyria: Ruled from 681 to 669 b.c. These people may have been brought to Palestine in 677 or 676 b.c., when Esarhaddon invaded Syria.
4.4 Jews: This was the name given to those Israelites who settled in Judah after returning from Babylonia.
4.5 Cyrus … Darius: Cyrus ruled 539–530 b.c. (see the note at 1.1); Darius I, known as Darius the Great, ruled 522–486 b.c.
4.6 Jerusalem: Verses 6-23, which tell about the events of a later period, are placed here because they are also concerned with the problem of stopping or slowing down work on the temple.
4.6 first year that Xerxes was king: Either the end of 486 or the beginning of 485 b.c. The Hebrew has the king's Persian name “Ahasuerus,” but he is better known as “Xerxes,” the Greek form of the name.