Ezra 3 · עזרא

And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Yisra᾽el were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Yerushalayim.

Then stood up Yeshua the son of Yożadaq, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbavel the son of She᾽alti᾽el, and his brethren, and they built the altar of the God of Yisra᾽el, to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the Tora of Moshe the man of God.

And they set the altar upon its bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.

And they kept the feast of booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the prescribed form, as the duty of every day required;

and afterwards they offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the sacred appointed seasons of the Lord, and on behalf of everyone who willingly offered a free will offering to the Lord.

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 yet laid.

They gave money also to the masons, and to the carpenters; and food, and drink, and oil, to those of Żidon, and of Żor, to bring cedar trees from the Levanon to the sea of Yafo, according to the grant that they had from Koresh king of Paras.

Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Yerushalayim, in the second month, began Zerubbavel the son of She᾽alti᾽el, and Yeshua the son of Yożadaq, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they who were come out of the captivity to Yerushalayim; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upwards, to superintend the work of the house of the Lord.

Then stood Yeshua with his sons and his brethren, Qadmi’el and his sons, the sons of Yehuda, together, to superintend the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Ḥenadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.

And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaf with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the form prescribed by David king of Yisra᾽el.

And they sang responsively in praising and giving thanks to the Lord; because he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever towards Yisra᾽el. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

But many of the priests and Levites and the chiefs of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house; when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; but many shouted aloud for joy:

so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.