Ezra 3
Ezra 3:1 When the seventh month arrived, and the Israelites were in their towns, the people gathered[1] as one in Jerusalem.
Ezra 3:2 The priests, Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers, along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers, began to build the altar of Israel’s God and offer ascending[2] offerings on it, as it is written in the instruction[3] of Moses, the man of God.
Ezra 3:3 They set up the altar on its foundation and offered ascending offerings for the morning and evening to Yahveh, even though they feared the people of the lands.
Ezra 3:4 They celebrated the Festival of Huts[4] as prescribed and offered ascending offerings each day, based on the number specified by the judgment[5] for each festival day.
Ezra 3:5 After that, they offered the continual[6] ascending offering, the offerings at the beginning of each month, and for all Yahveh’s appointed[7] holy occasions, and the spontaneous voluntary donations brought to Yahveh.
Ezra 3:6 On the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer ascending offerings to Yahveh, even though the foundation of Yahveh’s temple had not yet been laid.
Ezra 3:7 They gave money to the stonecutters and artisans. They gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre so they could bring cedar wood from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia.
Ezra 3:8 In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, Jeshua, son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers, including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began to build. They appointed the Levites, who were twenty years old or older, to supervise the work on Yahveh’s house.
Ezra 3:9 Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah and Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites, joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.
Ezra 3:10 When the builders had laid the foundation of Yahveh’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph, holding cymbals, took their positions to praise Yahveh, as King David of Israel had instructed.
Ezra 3:11 They sang with praise and thanksgiving to Yahveh: “For he is good; his covenant faithfulness[8] to Israel endures permanently.”[9] Then, all the people gave a great shout of praise to Yahveh because the foundation of Yahveh’s house had been laid.
Ezra 3:12 Many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first house wept loudly when they saw its foundation, but many others shouted joyfully.
Ezra 3:13 The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the weeping because they were shouting so loudly, and the sound was heard far away.
[1] אָסַף = gather. Ezra 3:1; 9:4.
[2] עֹלָה = ascending (offering). Ezra 3:2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 8:35.
[3] תּוֹרָה = instruction. Ezra 3:2; 7:6, 10; 10:3.
[4] סֻכָּה = hut. Ezra 3:4.
[5] מִשְׁפָּט = judgment, justice. Ezra 3:4; 7:10.
[6] תָּמִיד = continual(ly). Ezra 3:5.
[7] מוֹעֵד = conference, appointed. Ezra 3:5.
[8] חֶסֶד = covenant faithfulness. Ezra 3:11; 7:28; 9:9.
[9] עוֹלָם = permanent/ly, ancient, future. Ezra 3:11; 9:12.
links:
God alone is Immortal
God is Different
shouting and weeping
they knew
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