Ezra 3 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

When the seventh month came around, and the Israelites had settled into their towns, the people came together as one in Jerusalem.

Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, along with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, along with his relatives, got started and built the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it, exactly as it's written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

They set the altar on its foundation even though they were terrified of the people already living in the land around them. And they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh — both the morning and evening offerings.

They also celebrated the Festival of Shelters as it's written, offering the exact number of burnt offerings required for each day.

After that, there was the regular burnt offering, the offerings for the new moons, and offerings for all of Yahweh's appointed festivals that were set apart — plus whatever anyone wanted to give voluntarily to Yahweh.

From the first day of the seventh month they started offering burnt offerings to Yahweh, even though the foundation of Yahweh's temple hadn't been laid yet.

They gave money to the stonecutters and craftsmen, and gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as Cyrus king of Persia had authorized.

In the second month of the second year after they arrived at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak got started, along with the rest of their fellow priests and Levites and everyone who had come back to Jerusalem from captivity. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to oversee the work on the house of Yahweh.

Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons — the descendants of Hodaviah — joined together to oversee those doing the work on the house of God. So did the sons of Henadad with their sons and fellow Levites.

When the builders laid the foundation of Yahweh's temple, the priests stood in their robes with trumpets, and the Levites — the sons of Asaph — stood with cymbals to praise Yahweh, following the directions of David, king of Israel.

They sang back and forth, praising and giving thanks to Yahweh: "He is good — his loyal love for Israel never runs out." And all the people erupted in a great shout of praise to Yahweh because the foundation of Yahweh's house had been laid.

But many of the older priests and Levites and family leaders — those who had seen the first house with their own eyes — wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house being laid. Meanwhile, many others shouted with joy at the top of their lungs.

Nobody could tell the sound of the joyful shouts from the sound of the weeping, because the people were making so much noise that it could be heard from far away.