¹And by the time the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities, and the people gathered in unison in Jerusalem. ²And Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose, as did his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to make burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. ³And they set up the altar on its base, because in a dread which had come over them because of the peoples of the various countries, they made burnt offerings to the Lord on it – burnt offerings of the morning and of the evening. ⁴And they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles as it is written, and they made burnt offerings daily, in the right quantity, according to the ordinance of the daily proceeding. ⁵And after that was the recurrent burnt offering, both for the new moons and for all the Lord's sanctified festival times, and a freewill-offering from everyone who freely offered it to the Lord. ⁶From the first day of the seventh month, they began to make burnt offerings to the Lord, although the Lord's temple had not yet had its foundations laid. ⁷And they gave money to the stonemasons and to the craftsmen, as well as food and drink and oil, and to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, for bringing cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the authorization given to them by Cyrus king of Persia. ⁸And in the second year after their coming to the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers – the priests and the Levites – and all those who came back from captivity to Jerusalem, began to appoint the Levites from twenty years old and above to superintend the work of the house of the Lord. ⁹And Jeshua, his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons – the sons of Judah – stood in unison to superintend those doing the work in the house of God, with the sons of Henadad, and their sons and their brothers, the Levites. ¹⁰And the builders laid the foundations of the Lord's temple, and they appointed priests in full dress, with trumpets, and also Levites – sons of Asaph – with cymbals, to praise the Lord according to the instructions of David king of Israel. ¹¹And they sang to the Lord in praise and thanksgiving – that

He is good,

For his kindness to Israel is age-abiding.

And all the people shouted with loud shouting in praising the Lord for the fact that the foundations of the house of the Lord had been laid. ¹²And many of the priests and the Levites and the elderly paternal heads who had seen the first house, when this house had its foundations laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many raised their voice in shouting for joy. ¹³And the people could not distinguish between the sound of shouting for joy and the sound of weeping of the people, because the people were raising a loud shout, and the sound was heard a long way off.