Ezra chapter 3
They rebuild the altar. They rebuild the temple.
THEY REBUILD THE ALTAR
NOTE. This account is largely parallel to 1 Esdras 5:47-55
VERSE 1. When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
When the seventh month had come. After seven months, they gather to rebuild the altar.
VERSE 2. Then 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 God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Torah of Moses the man of God.
VERSE 3. In 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 the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
In spite of their fear. Their fears are legitimate. The people surrounding them are hostile to them.
Despite their legitimate fears, their faith gives them the strength to leap into action. They have Action-Faith.
they offered burnt offerings on it. With the altar back in-place, they resume the sacrifices and festivals.
VERSE 4. They kept the feast of booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
VERSE 5. and afterward the continual burnt offering, the offerings of the new moons, of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of everyone who willingly offered a free will offering to the LORD.
VERSE 6. From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD; but the foundation of the LORD’s temple was not yet laid.
they began to offer burnt offerings. Though the foundations of the temple had not yet been laid, they resumed animal sacrifices.
VERSE 7. They 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.
THEY REBULD THE TEMPLE
VERSE 8. Now in the second year of their coming to God’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 the LORD’s house.
in the second year. In the second year, they begin to rebuild the temple.
VERSE 9. Then 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 God’s house: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brothers the Levites.
VERSE 10. When the builders laid the foundation of the LORD’s temple, they set the priests in their vestments with shofars, with the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
the priests in their vestments:
1 Esdras 1:2. having set the priests according to their daily courses, being arrayed in their vestments, in the Lord’s temple.
shofars. Or “trumpets.”
VERSE 11. They sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever toward Israel.” All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the LORD’s house had been laid.
They sang … giving thanks to the LORD. They sing praise to the LORD God.
his loving kindness endures forever. What stands out to the Jewish people is of the goodness of the LORD God!
All the people shouted with a great shout. They shout for joy.
Some Christians have a sad face and a somber demeanor. We wish they could know the joy of their Lord. Holiness is marked by joy. Joy equals strength! Read more »
VERSE 12. But 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,
the old men. These men were old enough to remember the original temple, back before it was destroyed.
Let’s estimate their age. Assume they were 12 years old at the time of the fall of Jerusalem. Then they lived 70 years in Babylon. So they are at least 82 years old.
wept with a loud voice. When they lay the foundations for the new temple, these elderly men weep.
It is difficult for us to fathom how important the temple was to these people. It was vital for these people. And their nation. And the entire world.
Can you see them in your mind’s eye? Dozens or hundreds of elderly men are weeping with joy to see the temple being rebuilt.
1 Esdras 5:63. Some of the Levitical priests and of the heads of their families, the elderly who had seen the former house came to the building of this one with lamentation and great weeping.
Some Christians have a sad face and a somber demeanor. We wish they could know the joy of their Lord. Holiness is marked by joy. Joy equals strength! Read more »
VERSE 13. so 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.
Some Christians have a sad face and a somber demeanor. We wish they could know the joy of their Lord. Holiness is marked by joy. Joy equals strength! Read more »
EZRA
CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize, Seventy Years, Three Returns, Ezra proclaims a fast, Cyrus the Great
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.