1When the seventh month arrived, and the people of Israel were in their towns, they all gathered together in Jerusalem.
2Then Jeshua, son of Jozadak, stood up with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, with his relatives, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, just as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God.
3Even though they were afraid of the people in the surrounding lands, they set the altar on its base. They offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, both in the morning and in the evening.
4They celebrated the Festival of Shelters, as it is written, and offered the required number of daily burnt offerings, just as the law prescribed for each day.
5After that, they offered the regular burnt offering, the offerings for the New Moons, for all the special festivals dedicated to Yahweh, and for everyone who willingly brought a free will offering to Yahweh.
6They began to offer burnt offerings to Yahweh on the first day of the seventh month, even though the foundation of Yahweh’s temple had not yet been laid.
7They also gave money to the bricklayers and carpenters. They provided food, drink, and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre so they would bring cedar logs from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, as King Cyrus of Persia had authorized them.
8In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their relatives—the priests and Levites, and all who had returned from captivity to Jerusalem—began the work. They appointed Levites who were twenty years old and older to supervise the work on Yahweh’s house.
9Then Jeshua, with his sons and relatives, as well as Kadmiel and his sons (the sons of Judah), stood together to supervise the workmen in God’s house. The sons of Henadad, with their sons and relatives the Levites, also joined them.
10When the builders laid the foundation of Yahweh’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes, stood with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, stood with cymbals to praise Yahweh, following the instructions of David, king of Israel.
11They praised and thanked Yahweh by singing to each other: “For he is good; his faithful love for Israel endures forever.” All the people shouted loudly in praise to Yahweh because the foundation of Yahweh’s house had been laid.
12However, many of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first temple wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid. But many others shouted for joy,
13so the people could not tell the difference between the sound of joyful shouting and the sound of weeping. For the people shouted so loudly that the noise could be heard far away.