Sacrifices Restored

1And now the seventh month had arrived, and the sons of Israel were in their cities. Then, the people were gathered together, like one man, in Jerusalem. 2And Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, rose up with his brothers, the priests. And Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, rose up with his brothers. And they built the altar of the God of Israel, so that they might offer holocausts upon it, just as it was written in the law of Moses, the man of God. 3Now they set the altar of God upon its bases, while keeping the people of all the surrounding lands away from it. And they offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord, morning and evening. 4And they kept the solemnity of tabernacles, just as it was written, and the holocaust of each day in order, according to the precept, the work of each day in its time. 5And after these, they offered the continual holocaust, as much on the new moons as on all the solemnities of the Lord that were consecrated, and on all those when a voluntary gift was offered to the Lord. 6From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer holocausts to the Lord. But the temple of God had not yet been founded. 7And so they gave money to those who cut and laid stones. Similarly, they gave food, and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, so that they would bring cedar wood, from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, in accord with what had been commanded of them by Cyrus, the king of the Persians.

Temple Restoration Begins

8Then, in the second year of their advent to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the remainder of their brothers, the priests, and the Levites, and all who had arrived from the captivity to Jerusalem, began, and they appointed Levites, from twenty years and over, to hasten the work of the Lord. 9And Jeshua and his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, and the sons of Judah, like one man, stood so that they might have charge over those who did the work in the temple of God: the sons of Henadad, and their sons, and their brothers, the Levites.

10And when the builders had founded the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their adornment with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, stood with cymbals, so that they might praise God by the hand of David, the king of Israel. 11And they sung together with hymns and confession to the Lord: “For he is good. For his mercy is over Israel unto eternity.” And likewise, all the people shouted with a great clamor in praise to the Lord, because the temple of the Lord had been founded. 12And many of the priests and the Levites, and the leaders of the fathers and of the elders, who had seen the former temple, when now this temple was founded and was before their eyes, wept with a great voice. And many of them, shouting for joy, lifted up their voice. 13Neither could anyone distinguish between the voice of clamor of joy, and a voice of weeping of the people. For the shouting of the people mixed into a great clamor, and the voice was heard from far away.