1Now when the seventh month came, and the children of Yisra’ĕl were in the cities, the people gathered as one man to Yerushalayim.

2And Yĕshua son of Yotsaḏaq and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbaḇel son of She’alti’ĕl and his brothers, arose and built the altar of the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Torah of Mosheh, the man of Elohim.

3So they set the altar on its stands, being afraid of the peoples of the lands. And they offered burnt offerings on it to יהוה, both the morning and evening burnt offerings.

4And they performed the Festival of Booths, as it is written, and the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the right-ruling for each day,

5and afterward the continual burnt offering, and those for New Moons and for all the appointed times of יהוה that were set-apart, also for everyone who volunteered a voluntary offering to יהוה.

6From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to יהוה. But the foundation of the Hĕḵal of יהוה had not been laid.

7And they gave silver to the stonemasons and the carpenters, and food, and drink, and oil to the people of Tsiḏon and Tsor to bring cedar logs from Leḇanon to the sea at Yapho, according to the permission which they had from Koresh sovereign of Persia.

8And in the second month of the second year of their coming to the House of Elohim, to Yerushalayim, Zerubbaḇel son of She’alti’ĕl, and Yĕshua son of Yotsaḏaq, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Lĕwites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Yerushalayim, began, and they appointed the Lĕwites from twenty years old and above to oversee the work of the House of יהוה.

9And Yĕshua stood up, his sons and his brothers, Qadmi’ĕl with his sons, the sons of Yehuḏah together, to oversee those working on the House of Elohim: the sons of Ḥĕnaḏaḏ with their sons and their brothers the Lĕwites.

10And when the builders laid the foundation of the Hĕḵal of יהוה, they appointed the priests in their robes, with trumpets, and the Lĕwites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise יהוה, after the order of Dawiḏ sovereign of Yisra’ĕl.

11And they responded by praising and giving thanks to יהוה, “For He is good, for His kindness towards Yisra’ĕl is forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised יהוה, because the foundation of the House of יהוה was laid.

12And many of the priests and Lĕwites and heads of the fathers’ houses, the old men who had seen the first House, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this House was laid before their eyes, and many shouted aloud for joy,

13and the people could not distinguish the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.