Ezrachapter 3
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Speaks with:Ezra 4×3Numbers 29×3Numbers 28×2Acts 4×11 Corinthians 1×1Leviticus 23×1
The Rebuilding of the Temple Is Begun — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Summary
Chapter summary
In the seventh month the people gathered 'as one man to Jerusalem.' Jeshua and Zerubbabel built the altar of the God of Israel first and offered burnt-offerings upon it, 'for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the countries'; they kept the feast of tabernacles: 'but the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was not yet laid.' In the second year the builders laid it, and priests with trumpets and Levites with cymbals sang, 'for he is good, for his lovingkindness endureth for ever toward Israel.' Old men who had seen the first house wept with a loud voice while the young shouted for joy, and no one could tell the shouting from the weeping.
Context
History · Ezra — Ezra overview
- A. 1–6 The altar set on its bases while the foundation was still unlaid
- B. 7–9 Cedar from Lebanon and workmen set to the task
- C. 10–13 Shouting and weeping mingled till no one could tell them apart
The outline
A.The altar set on its bases while the foundation was still unlaidvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Cedar from Lebanon and workmen set to the taskvv. 7 to 9
Read vv. 7 to 9 →C.Shouting and weeping mingled till no one could tell them apartvv. 10 to 13
Read vv. 10 to 13 →
The world behind this chapter
Ezra 3The history
The first thing they build is not the temple. It is the altar, set on its base in the seventh month, and the reason given is fear: "fear was upon them because of the people of those countries." They were a small unarmed group on land other people had been using for fifty years.
The seventh month held the Feast of Tabernacles, and they kept it immediately — booths, and the daily burnt offerings by number as written. Sacrifice restarted before there was any building to house it.
The next spring they laid the foundation, and the logistics look exactly like the first temple's. Money went to masons and carpenters, and food, drink, and oil went to the men of Sidon and Tyre to float cedar down the coast from Lebanon to Joppa — the same arrangement Solomon made with Tyre, now authorized by a grant from Cyrus.
The dedication of the foundation was done with the old liturgy: priests in their vestments with trumpets, Levites with cymbals, singing responsively "for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever unto Israel."
And then the scene that everyone remembers. Old men who had seen the first house wept aloud, while others shouted for joy, and the noise mixed so completely that no one could tell the weeping from the shouting, and the sound was heard far off.
What it meant to them
The mixed noise is the honest sound of a partial restoration. The people who could remember Solomon's temple knew exactly what had been lost, and no foundation laid by a few thousand returnees was going to match it.
But the altar came first, before the walls, before the safety, before the funding. Worship resumed on a fire-blackened platform in a hostile neighborhood, and that decision set the direction for everything after.
Sources cited
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezra 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.