C. Altar Rebuilt: Temple Begun (3:1-13)
Abraham’s first act upon arriving in Canaan was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God (Ge 12:7). In like manner, the returnees, having settled into their towns, rebuilt the ruined altar at the temple site and resumed the sacrificial system as prescribed in the Torah. The altar was constructed under the leadership of Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubabbel, the governor (Hag 1:1), who was of royal lineage (1Ch 3:17-18). They represented the two primary institutions of ancient Israel, the priesthood and the monarchy, at this crucial time.
The altar was rebuilt despite their fear of the peoples around them (v.3). This phrase foreshadows the friction that was to erupt between the returnees and the people who had lived in Judah during the Exile. These peoples around them included both descendants of the Israelites who were not exiled and other ethnic groups such as the Samaritans, a mixed population whom the exiles considered apostate.
After the altar had been rebuilt and regular sacrifices reinstated the returnees celebrated their first festival, the Feast of Tabernacles (v.4; see Nu 29:12-38). This same festival is observed in Ne 8:13-14, in response to Ezra’s reading of the law. It is one of the three great pilgrimage festivals in Judaism, commemorating the period of the desert wanderings. This and other parallels suggest that the author of Ezra-Nehemiah viewed the Exile and return as a second Exodus experience.
The preparations for rebuilding the temple (vv.7-9) are reminiscent of those made for Solomon’s temple over four hundred years earlier. They brought materials from Lebanon, made payment in kind, and began the work in the second month (see 1Ki 5-6; 2Ch 2-3). These parallels demonstrate continuity between this temple and the first. Supervision by the priests and Levites (vv.8-9) insured the cultic purity of the work.
The returnees laid the foundation of the temple in the second year of the return (536 b.c.). The community responded with religious celebration, complete with appropriate vestments, musical instruments, and liturgy (vv.10-11). This action, too, is reminiscent of the dedication of Solomon’s edifice (2Ch 5:13). The festive atmosphere was tempered, however, by the somber note introduced in 3:12-13. Mixed with the shouts of joy was the sound of weeping. The older returnees who had seen the first temple were bitterly disappointed by this new temple. Hag 2:3 informs us that the postexilic temple paled when compared with the grandeur of Solomon’s.
Ch. 3 ends with a seemingly insignificant note, “And the sound was heard far away.” This phrase, repeated almost verbatim in Ne 12:43, has structural significance for the book of Ezra-Nehemiah. Here in 3:13 it serves to foreshadow opposition to the rebuilding effort and, hence, is a gloomy portent. But in the climax of the book, Ne 12:43, it is a triumphant note. There the walls have been dedicated and the noise of celebration signals the frustration of all efforts by the surrounding nations to thwart God and his people.