Ezra 3

When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were in their cities, the people gathered as one in Jerusalem. Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests, together with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, as written in the law of Moses, the man of God. They set the altar on its bases, for fear of the peoples of the lands had come upon them. On it, burnt offerings were offered to the LORD morning and evening. They celebrated the Festival of Booths as written and offered the daily burnt offerings in the prescribed number, according to the requirement for each day. Afterward they offered the regular burnt offering, the offerings for the new moons and all the LORD's consecrated festivals, and the offerings of everyone who brought a freewill offering to the LORD. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, though the foundation of the LORD's temple had not yet been laid. They gave silver to the stonecutters and craftsmen, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to the authorization Cyrus king of Persia had granted them. In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, the rest of their brothers the priests and Levites, and all who had come from captivity to Jerusalem began the work. They appointed the Levites twenty years old and upward to oversee the work on the house of the LORD. Jeshua, his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the descendants of Judah, joined together to oversee those working on the house of God, along with the descendants of Henadad, their sons and their brothers the Levites. When the builders laid the foundation of the LORD's temple, they stationed the priests, dressed in their robes, with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD according to the directions of David king of Israel. They sang in response, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: “For he is good, for his faithful love toward Israel endures forever.” All the people raised a great shout, praising the LORD because the foundation of the house of the LORD had been laid. But many of the priests, Levites, and heads of ancestral houses, the older men who had seen the first house, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house being laid. Many others raised their voices with shouts of joy. The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people raised a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

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