Sacrifice Restored

3 By the seventh month,^(A) the Israelites had settled in their towns, and the people gathered together in Jerusalem.^{(B) 2} Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel^(C) and his brothers began to build the altar of Israel’s God in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.^{(D) 3} They set up the altar on its foundation and offered burnt offerings for the morning and evening on it to the Lord even though they feared the surrounding peoples.^{(E) 4} They celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed, and offered burnt offerings each day, based on the number specified by ordinance for each festival day.^{(F) 5} After that, they offered the regular burnt offering and the offerings for the beginning of each month^[a](G) and for all the Lord’s appointed holy occasions, as well as the freewill offerings brought to^[b] the Lord.

⁶ On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord,^(H) even though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. ⁷ They gave money to the stonecutters and artisans, and gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they could bring cedar wood from Lebanon to Joppa by sea,^(I) according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia.^(J)

Temple Foundation Completed

¹⁰ When the builders had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph,^(A) holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord, as King David of Israel had instructed.^{(B) 11} They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever.”^(C) Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid.^(D)

¹⁹ The exiles^(A) observed the Passover^(B) on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²⁰ All of the priests and Levites were ceremonially clean, because they had purified themselves. They killed the Passover lamb for themselves, their priestly brothers, and all the exiles.^{(C) 21} The Israelites who had returned from exile^(D) ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the Gentiles of the land^[a](E) in order to worship Yahweh, the God of Israel. ²² They observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days^(F) with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful, having changed the Assyrian king’s attitude toward them, so that he supported them^[b] in the work on the house of the God of Israel.^(G)