UST EZRA Chapter 3

3 After the Israelite people returned and began to live in their towns, in the autumn of that year, they all gathered together in Jerusalem. 2 Then Joshua son of Jehozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates all began to rebuild the altar of the God of Israel. They did that so that they could sacrifice burnt offerings on it. They wanted to follow what the prophet Moses had written in the laws that God had given to him. 3 Even though they were afraid of the people who were already living in that area, they rebuilt the altar at the same place where the previous altar had been. They began to offer sacrifices to Yahweh on it every morning and every evening. 4 Fifteen days after they started to offer these sacrifices, the people celebrated the Festival of Shelters. Moses had commanded them to do this in the decrees that God had given to him. Each day the priests offered the sacrifices that were required for that day. 5 From then on, they presented the regular burnt offerings and the other required offerings. These were for the New Moon festivals and the other festivals that they celebrated as special times each year to honor Yahweh. They also brought other offerings to Yahweh just because they wanted to, not because they were required to bring them. 6 But even though they started bringing burnt offerings to Yahweh at the beginning of autumn, they had not yet started rebuilding the temple. 7 So the leaders of the Israelites hired stone-cutters and carpenters to do the construction work. They also bought logs of cedar trees from the people of the cities of Tyre and Sidon. To pay for the logs, the Israelites sent grain, wine, and olive oil to those people. Since King Cyrus had said that the Israelites could buy these things, the people of Tyre and Sidon agreed. They brought the logs down from the mountains in Lebanon to the Mediterranean seacoast and then floated them along the coast to the city of Joppa. Then they brought the logs inland from Joppa up to Jerusalem.

8 The Israelites started to rebuild the temple in the second month of the second year after they had returned to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Joshua the son of Jozadak, their fellow leaders the priests and the Levites, and all the people who had come from where their enemies had taken them to Jerusalem supported this project. The leaders assigned the Levites who were twenty years old and older to supervise this work of rebuilding the temple for Yahweh. 9 Jeshua, his sons, and his other relatives, and Kadmiel and his sons together helped to supervise those who were doing the work on the temple. They were all descendants of Judah. The sons and grandsons of Henadad along with the rest of their fellow Levites joined in the work. 10 When the builders finished laying the foundation of the temple of Yahweh, the priests and the Levites did what King David had told Asaph and the other musicians to do many years previously in order to praise Yahweh. The priests put on their robes and stood in their places, blowing their trumpets. Then the Levites who were descendants of Asaph clashed their cymbals. 11 Then the Levites praised Yahweh and thanked him by singing this song about him:

“He is very good to us!

He will continue to be faithful and kind to us Israelites and he will love us forever.” Then all the people shouted loudly. They praised Yahweh because they had finished laying the foundation of his temple. 12 Many of the old priests, Levites, and leaders of families remembered seeing the first temple. They cried aloud when they saw the workers lay the foundation of this temple because they thought that this temple would not be as big or as beautiful as the first temple. But the other people shouted joyfully in loud voices. 13 Since the shouting was so loud, no one could tell the difference between the people who were shouting joyfully and the people who were crying sorrowfully. All the noise was so loud that even people far away could hear it.

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