Esdras 3

¹ And when theCalled Tishri which had part of September and part of October.seventh month was come, and the children of Israel [were] in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

² Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel theMeaning nephew, for he was the son of Pedaiah, (1Ch_3:19).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.

³ And they set the altar uponIn the place where Solomon had placed it.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.

⁴ They kept also the feast of the Tabernacles, as it is written, and the burnt offring dayly, by nomber according to the custome day by day,

⁵ And afterward [offered]That is, after the feast of tabernacles.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.

⁶ From the first day of the seuenth moneth began they to offer burnt offrings vnto the Lord: but the foundation of the Temple of the Lorde was not layed.

⁷ They gaue money also vnto the masons, and to the workemen, and meat and drinke, & oyle vnto them of Zidon and of Tyrus, to bring them cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea vnto Iapho, according to the graunt that they had of Cyrus King of Persia.

⁸ Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in theWhich contains part of April and part of May, for in the mean season they had provided for things needed for the work.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.

⁹ Then stood JeshuaThey gave them exhortations and encouraged every man forward in the work.[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.

¹⁰ And when the builders layed the foundation of the Temple of the Lorde, they appoynted the Priestes in their apparel with trumpets, and the Leuites the sonnes of Asaph with cymbales, to prayse the Lord, after the ordinance of Dauid King of Israel.

¹¹ Thus they sang when they gaue prayse, and when they gaue thankes vnto the Lorde, For he is good, for his mercie endureth for euer toward Israel; all the people shouted with a great shoute, when they praysed the Lorde, because the foundation of the house of the Lorde was layed.

¹² But 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,Because they saw that it was not nearly as glorious as the temple Solomon had built, nonetheless Aggeus comforted them and prophesied that it would be more beautiful than the first, meaning the spiritual temple, they who are the members of Christ's body.wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:

¹³ So that the people coulde not discerne the sound of the shoute for ioy, from the noyse of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loude crie, & the noyse was heard farre off.