They gave money to the stonecutters and artisans, and gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they would bring cedar wood from Lebanon to Joppa by sea,(A) according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia.(B)

Rebuilding the Temple

In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak,(C) and the rest of their brothers, including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began to build. They appointed the Levites who were twenty years old or more to supervise the work on the Lord’s house.(D) Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah[a] and of Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites,(E) joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.

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Footnotes

  1. 3:9 Or Hodaviah; Neh 7:43; 1 Esdras 5:58

Construction Begins on the Temple

They paid masons and carpenters in cash.[a] They paid[b] the residents of Sidon and Tyre with food, drink, and oil, for them to bring cedar trees by sea from Lebanon to Joppa in accordance with the order they had obtained from Cyrus, king of Persia.

Two years and two months after arriving at the site of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, Shealtiel’s son Zerubbabel, Jozadak’s son Jeshua, the relatives of the priests and descendants of Levi, and everyone else who had left the Babylonian[c] captivity for Jerusalem appointed descendants of Levi who were 20 years old and older to oversee the work of the Lord’s Temple.

At this time Jeshua, along with his children and relatives, and Kadmiel, with his children and the descendants of Judah, joined the family of Henadad with his children and relatives, and the descendants of Levi in overseeing the work on the Temple of God.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezra 3:7 Lit. silver
  2. Ezra 3:7 The Heb. lacks They paid
  3. Ezra 3:8 The Heb. lacks Babylonian