Ezra 3:7-13

Expanded Bible

Rebuilding the Temple

⁷ Then they gave money to the ·bricklayers [masons] and carpenters. They also gave food, ·wine [drink], and olive oil to the cities of Sidon and Tyre so they would ·float [bring] cedar logs from Lebanon to the seacoast town of Joppa. Cyrus king of Persia had given permission for this.

⁸ In the second month [^Cmidspring] of the second year after their arrival at the ·Temple [^Lhouse] of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel [v. 2], Jeshua son of Jozadak, their fellow priests and Levites, and all who had returned from ·captivity [exile] to Jerusalem began to work. They ·chose [appointed] Levites twenty years old and older to ·be in charge of [supervise] the building of the ·Temple [^Lhouse] of the Lord. ⁹ The workers building the ·Temple [^Lhouse] of God were supervised by Jeshua and his sons and brothers [3:2], together with Kadmiel and his sons who were the descendants of Hodaviah, and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers. They were all Levites.

¹⁰ The builders finished laying the foundation of the Temple of the Lord. Then the priests, dressed in their ·robes [vestments], stood with their ·trumpets [clarions; ^Ca long, metallic instrument, not a ram’s horn], and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, stood with their cymbals. They all took their places and praised the Lord just as David king of Israel had ·said to do [instructed; prescribed]. ¹¹ With praise and thanksgiving, they ·sang [^Lanswered; ^Csang antiphonally] to the Lord:

And then all the people shouted loudly, “Praise the Lord! The foundation of his ·Temple [^Lhouse] has been laid.” ¹² But many of the older priests, Levites, and ·family leaders [^Lheads of fathers] who had seen the first ·Temple [^Lhouse] cried loudly when they saw the foundation of this Temple. ·Most of the other people [Many others] were shouting with joy. ¹³ The people made so much noise it could be heard far away, and no one could tell the difference between the joyful shouting and the sad crying.