CHAPTER 3
1 And when the seventh month was come, and the sons of Israel were in their cities. And the people was gathered as one man into Jerusalem.
2 And Joshua, the son of Jozadak, rose up, and his brethren, priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, and his brethren, and they builded the altar of God of Israel for to offer thereupon burnt sacrifices, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.
3 And they setted the altar upon his foundaments, while the peoples of lands by compass made them afeared; and they offered upon that altar burnt sacrifices to the Lord in the morrow-tide and eventide.
4 And they made the solemnity of tabernacles, as it is written, and they offered burnt sacrifices each day by order, by the work of the day commanded in his day.
5 And after this they offered the continual burnt sacrifice, both in calends and in all solemnities of the Lord, that were hallowed, and in all, in which gift was offered to the Lord by free will.
6 In the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt sacrifice to the Lord; certainly the temple of God was not founded yet.
7 But they gave money to the hewers of stone, and to the layers of stone, and they gave meat, and drink, and oil, to men of Sidon, and to men of Tyre, that they should bring cedar trees from the Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, by that that Cyrus, king of Persia, had commanded to them.
8 And in the second year of their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerub-babel, the son of Salathiel, and Joshua, the son of Jozadak, and others of their brethren, priests and deacons [or Levites], and all that came from the captivity into Jerusalem, began the work of God’s temple; and they ordained deacons, from twenty years and above, for to hasten the work of the Lord;
9 and Joshua stood, and his sons, and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, and the sons of Judah together, as one man, to be busy over them that made the work in the temple of God; and the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their brethren, deacons [or Levites].
10 Therefore when the temple of the Lord was founded of stone-layers, priests stood in their ornaments with trumps, and deacons [or Levites], the sons of Asaph, stood singing in cymbals, for to praise God, by the hand, or ordinance, of David, king of Israel.
11 And they sang together in hymns and acknowledging to the Lord, For he is good, for his mercy is without end upon Israel. And all the people cried with [a] great cry, in praising the Lord, for the temple of the Lord was founded.
12 Also full many of the priests, and of the deacons [or Levites], and the princes of fathers, and the elder men, that had seen the former temple, when it was founded, and saw this temple before their eyes, wept with great voice, and many men crying in great gladness raised up the voice;
13 and no man might know the voice of cry of the men being glad, and the voice of weeping of the people; for the people cried together with [a] great cry, and the voice of them was heard afar.