1 When the seventh month {hachodesh ha-shevi‘i: festival season} arrived and the sons of Israel {benei Yisrael: covenant nation} were living in their towns, the whole people gathered in Jerusalem with one purpose.
2 Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, rose and built the altar {mizbeach: place of sacrifice} of the God {Elohim, Worship Recipient} of Israel, so that they might offer burnt offerings upon it, just as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
3 They set up the altar in its place because fear had come upon them on account of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings to the LORD {YHWH, Ritual Recipient} on it in the morning {boker: daybreak sacrifice} and in the evening.
4 They celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles {khag ha-sukkot: pilgrimage festival} as it is written, and they presented the burnt offerings {ve-olat yom: daily burnt offering} required each day, in the proper number according to the ordinance for each day.
5 Afterward they offered the continual burnt offering, as well as the offerings for the new moons and for all the appointed times of the LORD {YHWH, Offerings Recipient} that were sanctified, together with the offerings of everyone who brought a freewill offering {nedavah: voluntary offering} to the LORD.
6 From the first day of the seventh month {ha-shevi‘i: festival month}, they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD {YHWH, Worship Receiver}; but the foundation of the temple of the LORD had not yet been laid.
7 They paid the stonecutters and carpenters, and they gave food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, so they would bring cedar logs from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, according to the permission {rishyon: official permit} granted to them by Koresh {Koresh: Persian Monarch} king of Persia.
8 In the second year after their arrival at the house of God {Elohim, Temple Patron} in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers—the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned from the exile to Jerusalem—made a start {hechellu: made a start}. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to oversee the work {mel’khet: temple rebuilding task} of the house of the LORD {YHWH, Cultic Authority}.
9 Jeshua, with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel with his sons—the sons of Judah—stood together as one to oversee those performing the work in the house of God {Elohim, Divine Dwelling}. The sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brothers, the Levites {ha leviim: temple ministers}, were with them in overseeing the work.
10 When the builders had set the temple’s foundation for the LORD {YHWH, Sanctuary Lord}, the priests stood in vestments {melubashim: consecrated garments} with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, held cymbals to praise the LORD in keeping with the ordinance given by David king of Israel.
11 They sang in alternating responses, giving praise and thanksgiving to the LORD {YHWH, Praise-Worthy One}, saying, “For He is good, and His loyal love endures forever toward Israel.” When the foundation {husad: temple base} of the LORD’s house was laid, all the people answered with a great shout of praise to the LORD.
12 But many among the priests, the Levites, and the heads of the ancestral households {avot: family lineages}—elderly men who had seen the first house—wept with a loud voice as the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while others lifted their voices in jubilant shouts {simchah: deep gladness}.
13 So the people could not distinguish {makirim: perceive difference} the sound of the joyful shouting from the sound of the weeping, for the shout was so great that the sound was heard from far away {lemerachoq: from far away}.