Ch 3 / 10~3 min
Ezra

Chapter 3

Rebuilding the Altar of Sacrifice First

The laying of the temple's foundation amid tears and shouts of joy points to Yeshua, the Cornerstone upon whom the assembly is built with both grief and gladness.

  1. The Altar Rebuilt First

    The first thing the returnees build is the altar. Before walls or houses, worship comes first.

  2. 1When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
  3. 2Then Yeshua the son of Jozadak stood up with his brothers the priests and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his relatives, and built the altar of the Elohim of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of Elohim.
  4. 3In spite of their fear because of the peoples of the surrounding lands, they set the altar on its base; and they offered burnt offerings on it to YHWH, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
  5. 4They kept the Chag HaSukkot, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
  6. 5and afterward the continual burnt offering, the offerings of the new moons, of all the set feasts of YHWH that were consecrated, and of everyone who willingly offered a free will offering to YHWH.
  7. 6From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to YHWH; but the foundation of YHWH’s temple was not yet laid.
  8. 7They also gave money to the masons and to the carpenters. They also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus King of Persia.
  9. The Temple Foundation Laid

    The temple foundation is laid with celebration. Something new is being built on the ruins of something lost.

  10. 8Now in the second year of their coming to Elohim’s house at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Yeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of YHWH’s house.
  11. 9Then Yeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together to have the oversight of the workmen in Elohim’s house: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brothers the Levites.
  12. 10When the builders laid the foundation of YHWH’s temple, they set the priests in their vestments with trumpets, with the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise YHWH, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
  13. 11They sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to YHWH, “For he is good, for his chesed endures forever towards Israel.” All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised YHWH, because the foundation of YHWH’s house had been laid.
  14. Weeping and Shouting Together

    Old men weep remembering Solomon's temple while young men shout for joy. Both grief and hope are kodesh before Elohim.

  15. 12But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many also shouted aloud for joy,
  16. 13so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard far away.
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