D C1 1-6. The setting up of the altar. C2 7-15. The foundation of the house.
C1 D 1. Time. Seventh month.
E e 2,3. Altar and offerings.
f 4. Feast of Tabernacles.
E f 5-. Other feasts.
e -5. Altar and offerings.
D 6-. Time. Seventh month.
426 B.C.
Ezra 3)
1 And when the seventh month was come (September), and the sons of Israel were in their cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man in Jerusalem. (Therefore this was after Neh. 7:1-4.)
2 Then stood up Jeshua (The high priest) the son of Jozadak (Ezra was his uncle), and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel (cp. Matt. 1:12. Luke 3:27, called Zerobabel) the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses (see Ex. 17:14) the man of the [true] God. (See Deut. 33:1)
3 And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the peoples of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
Sept 29th-Oct. 5th
4 They kept also the feast of tabernacles (Sept. 29th. See Neh. 8:1-18), as it is written (see Lev. 23:34-43. Deut. 16:13-15, and cp. 1 Kings 8:2,65), 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 began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.
C2 g1 7,8. The work set forward.
h1 9. The priests. Stationed.
g2 10-. The work. Foundation laid.
h2 -10,11. The priests. Praise.
g3 12-. The work. Contrasted.
h3 -12,13. The priests. Emotion.
7 They gave money also unto the masons, and to the articers; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon (cp. 1 Kings 5:6. 2 Chron. 2:8,10) to the sea of Joppa (cp. Josh 9:46. Acts 9:35,43. Jon. 1:3.), according to the grant (occurs only here) that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
425 B.C.
8 Now in the second year of their coming to the house of the [true] God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren 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 oversee the work of the house of the LORD.
9 Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah (or Hodaaviah, as in 2:40), together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD,
they set the priests (or, the priest took their stand) in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals (see 1 Chron. 13:8), to praise the LORD, after 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 loving-kindness (or grace) 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 Heads of the fathers, who were ancient 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: (Thus fulfilling Jer. 33:10,11)
13 So that the People could not discern 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.