# Ezra 03 📖: The Temple Foundation Is Laid [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Ezra Overview]] | [[Ezra 02]] | [[Ezra 04]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ## The Altar is Rebuilt [[#Verse 01.]] When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were living in their towns, the people assembled in Jerusalem. [[#Verse 02.]] Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his priestly colleagues and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues started to build the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by the law of Moses the man of God.  [[#Verse 03.]] They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.  [[#Verse 04.]] They observed the Feast of Shelters as required and offered the proper number of daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day.  [[#Verse 05.]] Afterward they offered the continual burnt offerings and those for the new moons and those for all the holy assemblies of the Lord and all those that were being voluntarily offered to the Lord.  [[#Verse 06.]] From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. However, the Lord’s temple was not at that time established. ## Preparations for Rebuilding the Temple [[#Verse 07.]] So they provided money for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia. [[#Verse 08.]] In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, along with the rest of their associates, the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed the Levites who were at least twenty years old to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple.  [[#Verse 09.]] So Jeshua appointed both his sons and his relatives, Kadmiel and his sons (the sons of Yehudah), to take charge of the workers in the temple of God, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their relatives the Levites.  [[#Verse 10.]] When the builders established the Lord’s temple, the priests, ceremonially attired and with their clarions, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with their cymbals, stood to praise the Lord according to the instructions left by King David of Israel.  [[#Verse 11.]] With antiphonal response they sang, praising and glorifying the Lord: “For he is good; his loyal love toward Israel is forever.” All the people gave a loud shout as they praised the Lord when the temple of the Lord was established.  [[#Verse 12.]] Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders—older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established—were weeping loudly, and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.  [[#Verse 13.]] People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly that the sound was heard a long way off. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The seventh month (3:1), Tishri, was the month of the Day of Atonement and the Festival of Shelters (Leviticus 23:24-36). 2. They celebrated the Festival of Shelters (3:4), which remembered Israel living in temporary shelters in the wilderness. 3. Burnt offerings resumed on the first day of the seventh month, even before the temple foundation was laid (3:6). 4. Cedar wood was brought from Lebanon by sea to Joppa (3:7), just as it had been for Solomon's temple (2 Chronicles 2:16). 5. The foundation work began in the second month (3:8), the same month Solomon began building the first temple (1 Kings 6:1). 6. Levites twenty years and older supervised the work (3:8), the same age David set in 1 Chronicles 23:24, younger than the thirty years in Numbers 4:3. 7. The priests blew trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, played cymbals according to the instructions of David (3:10). 8. Their song in 3:11 echoes the refrain of Psalm 136 and the praise at the dedication of Solomon's temple (2 Chronicles 5:13). 9. Some of the older people had seen Solomon's temple before it was destroyed in 586 BC, about fifty years earlier (3:12). 10. Haggai later asked who among the people had seen the former temple's glory and how the new one compared (Haggai 2:3). ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the cornerstone of God's house. When the temple foundation was laid, the people sang that the Lord is good and His loyal love endures forever (3:10-11). Jesus is the chosen and precious cornerstone on whom God builds His people (1 Peter 2:4-6). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. The people rebuilt the altar first, even though they were afraid of the surrounding peoples (3:3). Why do you think worship came before walls or houses? 2. Older people wept while others shouted for joy (3:12-13). How can a church honor both memories of the past and hope for the future? 3. They praised God when only the foundation was finished (3:10-11). What foundation is God laying in your life right now that you can thank Him for? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 3: Despite their fear, they set up the altar and offer burnt offerings to the Lord. - 📖 verse 11: They sing that the Lord is good and His loyal love toward Israel endures forever. - 📖 verses 12-13: Shouts of joy and loud weeping mix so that no one can tell them apart. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Haggai 02#Verse 03.|Haggai 2:3-9]] - The glory of the latter house will be greater. - 🔗 [[Psalm 136#Verse 01.|Psalm 136:1]] - His loyal love endures forever. - 🔗 [[Zechariah 04#Verse 09.|Zechariah 4:9-10]] - God's work is not to be despised for its small beginnings. - 🔗 [[1 Peter 02#Verse 04.|1 Peter 2:4-6]] - Christ, the chosen and precious cornerstone. - 🔗 [[Leviticus 23#Verse 33.|Leviticus 23:33-43]] - The Festival of Shelters. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Ezra 03 - SOAP|Every Generation Passes, Every Generation Rises]] ## 📂 Internal Notes