Ezra 3:1-6

Common English Bible

Rebuilding the altar

3 When the seventh month^[a] came and the Israelites were in their towns, the people gathered together as one in Jerusalem. ² Then Jeshua, Jozadak’s son along with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son along with his kin, started to rebuild the altar of Israel’s God so that they might offer entirely burned offerings upon it as prescribed in the Instruction from Moses the man of God. ³ They set up the altar on its foundations,^[b] because they were afraid of the neighboring peoples,^[c] and they offered entirely burned offerings upon it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

⁴ They celebrated the Festival of Booths, as prescribed. Every day they presented the number of entirely burned offerings required by ordinance for that day. ⁵ After this, they presented the continual burned offerings, the offerings at the new moons, and at all the sacred feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who brought a spontaneous gift to the Lord. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month, they began to present entirely burned offerings to the Lord.

However, the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.