Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, rose up and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
And they set up the altar according to its ordinance, for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings upon it to Jehovah, both the morning and the evening burnt offerings.
And they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, offering the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
and after that the continual burnt offering, and the offerings of every new moon and of all the appointed holy feasts of Jehovah, and the offerings of everyone who brought a freewill offering to Jehovah.
From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to Jehovah; but the foundation of the house of Jehovah had not yet been laid.
They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the men of Tyre and Sidon, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, and from there they would be brought according to the grant given them by Cyrus king of Persia.
Now in the second year after they came to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who had come to Jerusalem out of the captivity, began the work; and they appointed the Levites from twenty years old and upward to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah.
Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Judah, stood together to oversee the workmen building the house of God, with the sons of Henadad and their sons and their brothers the Levites.
And when the builders laid the foundation of the house of Jehovah, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise Jehovah, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness toward Israel endures for ever. And all the people shouted with a great shout, praising Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, the old men who had seen the former house when its foundation was laid, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house before their eyes; while many shouted aloud for joy,
so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far off.