1 When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered ^tas one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then arose ^uJeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the ^valtar of the God of Israel, to offer ^wburnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 They set the altar in its place, for ^xfear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings ^ymorning and evening. 4 And they kept the ^zFeast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number ^aaccording to the rule, as each day required, 5 and after that the ^bregular burnt offerings, the offerings ^cat the new moon and ^dat all the ^eappointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a ^ffreewill offering to the Lord. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the ^gfoundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. 7 So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring ^hcedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the ⁱgrant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.

8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua 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 appointed the Levites, ^jfrom twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9 And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.

10 And when the builders ^klaid 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, ^laccording to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

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 ⁿBut many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old 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.