Part 272 (1/2)

1 Esdras Chapter 3

An altar is built for sacrifice, the feast of tabernacles is solemnly celebrated, and the foundations of the temple are laid.

3:1. And now the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in their cities: and the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

3:2. And Josue the son of Josedec rose up, and his brethren the priests, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and his brethren, and they built the altar of the G.o.d of Israel that they might offer holocausts upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of G.o.d.

Josue... or Jesus (Jeshua) the son of Josedec; he was the high priest, at that time.

3:3. And they set the altar of G.o.d upon its bases, while the people of the lands round about put them in fear, and they offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord morning and evening.

3:4. And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the holocaust every day orderly according to the commandment, the duty of the day in its day.

3:5. And afterwards the continual holocaust, both on the new moons, and on all the solemnities of the Lord, that were consecrated, and on all in which a freewill offering was made to the Lord.

3:6. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer holocausts to the Lord: but the temple of G.o.d was not yet founded.

3:7. And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Liba.n.u.s to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the Persians had given them.

3:8. And in the second year of their coming to the temple of G.o.d in Jerusalem, the second month, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Josue the son of Josedec, and the rest of their brethren the priests, and the Levites, and all that were come from the captivity to Jerusalem began, and they appointed Levites from twenty years old and upward, to hasten forward the work of the Lord.

3:9. Then Josue and his sons and his brethren, Cedmihel, and his sons, and the children of Juda, as one man, stood to hasten them that did the work in the temple of G.o.d: the sons of Henadad, and their sons, and their brethren the Levites.

3:10. And when the masons laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their ornaments with trumpets: and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise G.o.d by the hands of David king of Israel.

3:11. And they sung together hymns, and praise to the Lord: because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever towards Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, praising the Lord, because the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid.

3:12. But many of the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers and the ancients that had seen the former temple; when they had the foundation of this temple before their eyes, wept with a loud voice: and many shouting for joy, lifted up their voice.

3:13. So that one could not distinguish the voice of the shout of joy, from the noise of the weeping of the people: for one with another the people shouted with a loud shout, and the voice was heard afar off.

1 Esdras Chapter 4

The Samaritans by their letter to the king hinder the building.

4:1. Now the enemies of Juda and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to the Lord the G.o.d of Israel.

4:2. And they came to Zorobabel, and the chief of the fathers, and said to them: Let us build with you, for we seek your G.o.d as ye do: behold we have sacrificed to him, since the days of Asor Haddan king of a.s.syria, who brought us. .h.i.ther.

4:3. But Zorobabel, and Josue, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said to them: You have nothing to do with us to build a house to our G.o.d, but we ourselves alone will build to the Lord our G.o.d, as Cyrus king of the Persians hath commanded us.

4:4. Then the people of the land hindered the hands of the people of Juda, and troubled them in building.

4:5. And they hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their design all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of the Persians.

4:6. And in the reign of a.s.suerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Juda and Jerusalem.

a.s.suerus... Otherwise called Cambyses the son and successor of Cyrus. He is also in the following verse named Artaxerxes, a name common to almost all the kings of Persia.

4:7. And in the days of Artaxerxes, Beselam, Mithridates, and Thabeel, and the rest that were in the council wrote to Artaxerxes king of the Persians: and the letter of accusation was written in Syrian, and was read in the Syrian tongue.