Ezra 3

Revised Geneva Translation

3 And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in their cities, the people assembled themselves as one man to Jerusalem.

² Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, stood 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.

³ And they set the Altar upon its bases (for fear was among them because of the people of those countries). Therefore, they offered Burnt Offerings to the LORD on it, Burnt Offerings in the morning and at evening.

⁴ They also kept the Feast of the Tabernacles, as it is written, and a daily Burnt Offering, by number, according to the custom, day by day,

⁵ and afterward, the continual Burnt Offering, both in the new months and on all the Feast days that were consecrated to the LORD, and in all the oblations willingly offered to the LORD.

⁶ From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer Burnt Offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the Temple of the LORD was not laid.

⁷ They also gave money to the masons, and to the workmen, and food and drink, and oil to those of Zidon and of Tyre, to bring them cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea, to Japho, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus, king of Persia.

⁸ And in the second year of their coming to the House of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests, and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and above, began to set forward the work of the House of the LORD.

⁹ And Jeshua stood with his sons, and his brethren, and Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah together, to set forward the workmen in the House of God, and the sons of Henadad, with their sons, and their brethren the Levites.

¹⁰ And after the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the LORD, they appointed the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the Ordinance of David, king of Israel.

¹¹ Thus they sang to the LORD, when they gave praise and when they gave thanks: “For He is good! For His mercy 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 had been laid.

¹² Also, many of the priests and the Levites and the chief of the fathers, ancient men who had seen the first House, (when the foundation of this House was laid before their eyes) wept with a loud voice. And many shouted aloud for joy,

¹³ so that the people could not discern the sound of the shout for joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud cry. And the noise was heard far away.