And the seventh month arrived, and the sons of Israel were in the cities; and the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.
Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the instruction of Moses, the man of God.
And they established the altar on its bases — for dread was on them from the peoples of the lands — and they offered up on it burnt offerings to the LORD, burnt offerings for the morning and for the evening.
And they kept the feast of booths, as it is written, with the burnt offering day by day by number, according to the judgment, the matter of a day in its day;
and after that the continual burnt offering, and those for the new moons, and for all the consecrated appointed times of the LORD, and for everyone offering a freewill offering to the LORD.
From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer up burnt offerings to the LORD — but the temple of the LORD was not yet founded.
And they gave silver to the hewers and to the craftsmen, and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant of Cyrus, king of Persia, to them.
Temple Restoration Begins
And in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel began, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who had come from the captivity to Jerusalem; and they made the Levites stand, from twenty years old and upward, to oversee the work of the house of the LORD.
And Jeshua stood, his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, as one, to oversee the doers of the work in the house of God — the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brothers, the Levites.
And the builders founded the temple of the LORD; and they made the priests stand, clothed, with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD by the hands of David, king of Israel.
And they answered one another in praising and in giving thanks to the LORD: “For he is good — for his loyal love is forever over Israel.” And all the people shouted a great shout in praising the LORD, because the house of the LORD was founded.
And many of the priests and the Levites and the heads of the fathers’ houses, the old men who had seen the first house — at its founding, this house, before their eyes — were weeping with a great voice; and many, with a shout, with joy, were raising the voice.
And the people could not distinguish the voice of the shout of joy from the voice of the weeping of the people; for the people were shouting a great shout, and the voice was heard as far as far away.
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