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¹ AND when the seventh month was come and the children of Israel were in their cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to go up to Jerusalem.² Then stood Joshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests and Zerubbabel the son of Shelathiel and his brethren, and they built the altar to the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it as it is written in the law of Moses the prophet of God.³ And they set the altar upon its bases; for fear was upon them because of the peoples who dwelt in the cities, and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.⁴ And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, according to the daily requirements;⁵ And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons and of all the feasts of the LORD that were consecrated and of every one who willingly offered a freewill offering to the LORD.⁶ From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.⁷ They gave money to the masons and to the carpenters; and for the food and drink and oil to the Syrians and the Zidonians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon by the sea to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.

⁸ Now in the second year of their coming to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, in the second month, sent Zerubbabel the son of Shelathiel and Joshua the son of Jozadak and the remnant of their brethren and the priests and the Levites and all they that were come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites from twenty years old and upward to look after the work of the house of the LORD in the day time.⁹ Then stood Joshua with his brethren and his sons, Kadmiah and his sons, and the sons of Judah, together, to execute the work of the house of the LORD; also the sons of Hendar, with their sons and their brethren, the Levites.¹⁰ And when the builders laid the foundation of the building of the temple of the LORD, the priests stood up in their vestments with trumpets of rams blowing with them, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with large trumpets, to praise the LORD according to the ordinance of David, king of Israel.¹¹ And they sang together in unison in praising and giving thanks to 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 the Levites and the chiefs of the fathers, old men, who had seen the first house in its glory, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many raised their voices with trumpets and with joy,¹³ So that the people could not discern the sound of the trumpets from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people blew trumpets with a loud blast and the noise of weeping was heard afar off.