Ezra 3

They Pulled Up and Got to Work

1 When the seventh month hit, and everybody had settled back in their own towns, the people came together like one big family in Jerusalem.

2 Then Jeshua (son of Jozadak) and his priest crew, along with Zerubbabel (son of Shealtiel) and his crew, stood up and built the altar of Israel’s God. They did it so they could offer burnt offerings on it, just like the Law of Moses, the man of God, told them to.

3 Even though they were scared of the people around them, they did not back down. They set that altar on its foundation and started sacrificing burnt offerings on it to the LORD, morning and evening, just like clockwork.

Feast of Booths Gets Brought Back

4 They kept the Feast of Booths, just like the Book said, day by day, they brought burnt offerings, the number of animals matching each day’s requirement.

5 After that, they kept the regular burnt offering routine going, plus offerings for the new moons, all the sacred festivals of the LORD, and any offerings folks wanted to give from their own heart.

6 So by the first day of the seventh month, they already started offering burnt sacrifices to the LORD, even though the foundation of the LORD’s temple had not even been poured yet.

Getting the Temple Started

7 They gave money to the stonecutters and woodworkers. They gave food, drink, and oil to the folks of Sidon and Tyre so they could float cedar logs down from Lebanon to Joppa, just like King Cyrus of Persia had allowed them to.

The Builders and the Praisers Link Up

8 By the second month of the second year after they got to God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel (son of Shealtiel), Jeshua (son of Jozadak), and their fams, the priests, Levites, and all who came back from the exile, stepped up. They put the Levites twenty years old and up in charge of the work on the house of the LORD.

9 Jeshua and his sons and brothers, along with Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah), teamed up to oversee the construction. The rest of the Levites helped out too, everyone was on board.

Foundation Laid. Praise Goes Up.

10 When the builders laid the foundation of the LORD’s temple, the priests pulled up in their robes with trumpets, and the Levites (sons of Asaph) had their cymbals ready. They praised the LORD just like David, king of Israel, had laid it out.

11 They were singing back and forth: “He is good! His mercy lasts forever over Israel!” And the whole crowd shouted loud with praise when they saw the foundation of the LORD’s house get laid. Folks were hyped.

Some Shouted, Some Wept

12 But not everybody was lit. Some of the old heads, the priests, Levites, and family leaders who remembered the old temple, started crying loud when they saw this foundation. Others were shouting for joy, so the sounds got mixed.

13 You could not even tell who was crying and who was celebrating. The people was making so much noise, it echoed far away.