¹¹ They sang together to praise the Lord. Group by group, they sang these words:

Then all the people shouted loudly to praise the Lord. They praised him because they had finished work on the temple's foundation.

¹² But many of the older priests, Levites and leaders wept aloud. They were sad because they had seen the temple as it had been before. They remembered how beautiful it had been. At the same time, many other people shouted because they were happy. ¹³ The happy shouts and the noise of people who were weeping were both very loud. People far away could hear the noise. The different sounds mixed together, so nobody could say which was which.