Give the King Your Justice
Of qSolomon.
1 Give the king your rjustice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 May he sjudge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
3 Let the mountains bear tprosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!
5 May they fear you1 while uthe sun endures,
and as long as the moon, vthroughout all generations!
6 May he be like wrain that falls on xthe mown grass,
like yshowers that water the earth!
7 In his days may zthe righteous flourish,
and apeace abound, till the moon be no more!
8 May he have dominion from bsea to sea,
and from bthe River2 to the cends of the earth!
9 May desert tribes dbow down before him,
and his enemies elick the dust!
10 May the kings of fTarshish and of gthe coastlands
render him htribute;
may the kings of iSheba and jSeba
bring gifts!
11 May all kings kfall down before him,
all nations serve him!
12 For he delivers lthe needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and mprecious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live;
may ngold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made ofor him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people pblossom in the cities
like the qgrass of the field!
17 rMay his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
sMay people be blessed in him,
tall nations call him blessed!
18 uBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does vwondrous things.
19 Blessed be his wglorious name forever;
may xthe whole earth be filled with his glory!
yAmen and Amen!
Rebuilding the Altar
1 kWhen the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and lZerubbabel the son of mShealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, nas it is written in the Law of Moses the oman of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, pfor fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and qthey offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. 4 rAnd they kept the Feast of Booths, sas it is written, tand offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the regular burnt uofferings, the offerings at the new moon vand at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made 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 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, wand food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians xto bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, yaccording to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
Rebuilding the Temple
8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, zZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and zJeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They aappointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to bsupervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9 And zJeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together bsupervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the csons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, daccording to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
e“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever 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 fathers’ houses, fold men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
