Ezra, Chapter 3

1. And when the 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 kindred the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his kindred, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.    3. And they set the altar upon its foundation; 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 tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;    5. And afterward offered 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 seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.    7. They gave money also to the masons, and to the carpenters; and food, and drink, and oil, to those of Sidon, and to those of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the permission that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.    8. Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their kindred the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the LORD.    9. Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his kindred, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to supervise the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their kindred the Levites.    10. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they stood the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel.    11. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endures for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.    12. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were elderly men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:    13. So that 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 noise was heard afar off.