Ezra 3

When the seventh month came, and the people of Israel were settled in their towns, they all gathered in Jerusalem, united as one man.

1And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

NoteThe seventh month is Tishri (roughly September–October), the most crowded month in the Israelite calendar: it opened with a day of trumpet blasts, contained the Day of Atonement, and ended with the week-long Feast of Tabernacles. "As one man" is a Hebrew idiom for acting with complete unanimity, as a single body.

2Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests, along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his relatives, set to work and built the altar of the God of Israel, so they could offer burnt offerings on it, just as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

2Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

NoteJeshua is the high priest and Zerubbabel the civil governor, a descendant of the royal house of David; between them they represent the two lines of leadership the returning exiles had. A burnt offering was one burned whole on the altar, with no part kept back to be eaten, as against offerings that were shared out among priests and worshipers. "The law of Moses" means the first five books of the Bible, and "man of God" is a standard title for a prophet, not a comment on Moses' character.

3They set the altar up on its own foundation, since they were afraid of the peoples living around them, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and the evening burnt offerings.

3And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.

NoteSetting the altar "on its own foundation" means rebuilding it on the exact spot the old altar had stood, which mattered because the site itself was held to be the one place sacrifice could rightly be offered. The peoples living around them were the populations who had remained in the land or been settled there during the seventy years the exiles were away, and who regarded the returnees as intruders. Morning and evening burnt offerings were the fixed twice-daily sacrifices commanded in the law.

4They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the burnt offerings for each day in the required number, following the rule for what each day called for.

4They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;

NoteThe Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) was a seven-day autumn harvest festival during which people lived in temporary shelters of branches, recalling the years Israel spent camping in the wilderness. Its distinctive feature was a descending count of bull sacrifices (thirteen on the first day, twelve on the second, and so on) which is what "the required number" and "the rule for what each day called for" refer to.

5After that they offered the regular daily burnt offering, along with the offerings for the new moons and for all the appointed festivals set apart for the LORD, and the offerings that anyone brought to the LORD as a freewill gift.

5And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the LORD.

NoteNew moons: the first day of each lunar month, marked by its own prescribed sacrifices, since the Israelite calendar ran by the moon. A freewill offering was one nobody was obliged to bring, given purely by choice, over and above what the law required.

6From 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.

6From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.

7They gave money to the stonecutters and the carpenters, and food, drink, and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they would bring cedar logs from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, as Cyrus king of Persia had authorized them to do.

7They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.

NoteSidon and Tyre were Phoenician port cities on the coast of what is now Lebanon, the timber merchants and shippers of the region. Cedar from the mountains of Lebanon was the prestige building timber of the ancient Near East. Paying in food, drink and olive oil rather than coin was the same arrangement Solomon had made for the first temple. The logs were floated down the coast by sea to Joppa (modern Jaffa), the nearest port to Jerusalem, about thirty-five miles away. The authorization from Cyrus is the decree described in chapter 1.

8In the second month of the second year after they came to the house of God in Jerusalem, the work began. Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, the rest of their fellow priests and Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity started it. They appointed the Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the work on the house of the LORD.

8Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.

NoteThe second month falls in roughly April–May; the work therefore began about a year and a half after the return. Levites were members of the tribe of Levi who were not descended from Aaron: they served as the temple's assistants, musicians, gatekeepers and supervisors rather than as sacrificing priests. Twenty was the minimum age for this duty; elsewhere the law sets it at twenty-five or thirty, and the lower figure here may reflect a shortage of men.

9So Jeshua stood with his sons and his relatives, and Kadmiel with his sons, the descendants of Judah, together to direct the workmen on the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad with their sons and their relatives, who were Levites.

9Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.

Note"The descendants of Judah" translates a Hebrew word that may be a personal name (Hodaviah or Yehudah, a Levite family head listed in chapter 2) rather than the tribe of Judah; the text is genuinely unclear. Henadad is another Levite family line.

10When the builders laid the foundation of the LORD's temple, the priests took their places in their robes with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD in the way David king of Israel had directed.

10And 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 Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.

NoteThe priests' robes were the prescribed vestments for temple service. The trumpets were the straight silver trumpets used for signals and ceremony, quite unlike the curved ram's horn. Asaph was a musician appointed by David to lead worship, and "the sons of Asaph" means the hereditary guild of temple singers descended from him. The ceremony deliberately follows the pattern David had laid down for the first temple.

11They sang back and forth to one another, praising and thanking the LORD: "He is good; his faithful love toward Israel lasts forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD had been laid.

11And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. 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.

NoteSinging "back and forth" means antiphonally: two groups answering each other, verse by verse. The words they sang are the refrain of several psalms. "Faithful love" renders the Hebrew word hesed, which covers loyalty, kindness and steady commitment within a binding relationship, and has no single English equivalent.

12But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, older men who had seen the first temple, wept out loud when the foundation of this temple was laid in front of them, while many others shouted for joy.

12But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:

NoteThe first temple was Solomon's, destroyed by the Babylonians about fifty years earlier. The men weeping were old enough to have seen it standing; the modest foundation now in front of them fell far short of what they remembered.

13The people could not tell the sound of the joyful shouting apart from the sound of the weeping, because the people shouted so loudly, and the noise was heard far away.

13So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.