Ezra 3
1 And now the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in their cities: and the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
After the Israeli people [returned to Israel, and] had begun to live in their towns, (in the autumn of/after the hot season ended in) that year, they all gathered together in Jerusalem.
2 And Josue the son of Josedec rose up, and his brethren the priests, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and his brethren, and they built the altar of the God of Israel that they might offer holocausts upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the mall of God.
Then Jeshua, the son of Jehozadak, and his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his friends, all began to rebuild the altar of God, the one whom the Israeli people [worshiped]. They did that in order that they could sacrifice burned offerings on it, according to what the prophet Moses had written in the laws [that God gave to him].
3 And they set the altar of God upon its bases, while the people of the lands round about put them in fear, and they offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord morning and evening.
Even though they were afraid of the people who were already living in that area, they rebuilt the altar at the same place [where the previous altar had been]. Before they started to lay the foundation of Yahweh’s temple, [the priests] started to burn sacrifices to Yahweh [on the altar]. They offered sacrifices every morning and every evening. Fifteen days after [they started to offer these sacrifices], the people celebrated the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters, as [Moses] had commanded them to do in the laws [that God gave to him]. Each day the priests offered the sacrifices [that were required] for that day. In addition, they presented the regular burned offerings and the offerings [that were required] for the New Moon Festivals and the other festivals that they celebrated each year to [honor] Yahweh. They also brought other offerings only because they desired to bring them, [not because they were required to bring them].
4 And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the holocaust every day orderly according to the commandment, the duty of the day in its day.
5 And afterwards the continual holocaust, both on the new moons, and on all the solemnities of the Lord, that were consecrated, and on all in which a free-will offering was made to the Lord.
6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer holocausts to the Lord: but the temple of God was not yet founded.
7 And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Libanus to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the Persians had given them.
Then the Israelis hired masons and carpenters, and they bought [logs from] cedar trees from the people of Tyre and Sidon [cities], and they gave those people food and wine and olive oil for the logs. They brought the logs down from [the mountains in] Lebanon [to the Mediterranean seacoast and then floated them along the coast of the Sea, ] to Joppa. King Cyrus permitted them to do that. [Then the logs were brought from Joppa inland up to Jerusalem].
8 And in the second year of their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, the second month, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Josue the son of Josedec, and the rest of their brethren the priests, and the Levites, and all that were come from the captivity to Jerusalem began, and they appointed Levites from twenty years old and upward, to hasten forward the work of the Lord.
The Israelis started to rebuild the temple in the (spring/time before the hot season) of the second year after they returned to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel and Jeshua and all the people who had returned to Jerusalem worked on the building. All the (Levites/men who did work in the temple) supervised this work.
9 Then Josue and his sons and his brethren, Cedmihel, and his sons, and the children of Juda, as one man, stood to hasten them that did the work in the temple of God: the sons of Henadad, and their sons, and their brethren the Levites.
Jeshua and his sons and his other relatives, and Kadmiel and his sons, who were descendants of Hodaviah, also helped to supervise the work. The family of Henadad, who were also all Levites, joined with them in supervising this work.
10 And when the masons laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their ornaments with trumpets: and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise God by the hands of David king of Israel.
When the builders finished laying the foundation of the temple, the priests put on their robes and stood in their places, blowing their trumpets. Then the Levites, who were descendants of Asaph, clashed/banged their cymbals to praise Yahweh, just as King David had [many years previously] told [Asaph and the other musicians] to do.
11 And they sung together hymns, and praise to the Lord: because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever towards Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, praising the Lord, because the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid.
They praised Yahweh and thanked him, and they sang this song about him: “He is very good [to us]! He faithfully loves us Israeli people, and he will love us forever.” Then all the people shouted loudly, praising Yahweh because they had finished laying the foundation of Yahweh’s temple.
12 But many of the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers and the ancients that had seen the former temple; when they had the foundation of this temple before their eyes, wept with a loud voice: and many shouting for joy, lifted up their voice.
Many of the [old] priests, Levites, and leaders of families remembered [what] the first temple [was like], and they cried aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid [because they knew that the new temple would not be as beautiful as the first temple]. But the other people shouted joyfully.
13 So that one could not distinguish the voice of the shout of joy, from the noise of the weeping of the people: for one with another the people shouted with a loud shout, and the voice was heard afar off.
The shouting and the crying was very loud; [even people] far away could hear it.
