Ezra · chapter 3 of 10
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Ezra 3 tells how, in the seventh month, Jeshua and Zerubbabel rebuild the altar and the people again offer burnt offerings, though they fear the surrounding peoples. In the second year they lay the temple foundation with trumpets, cymbals and praise to the Lord, while some shout for joy and the old men weep at the memory of the earlier temple.
After the list of those who returned, this chapter tells what they do first: restore worship before having a temple. The order matters. First the altar and the sacrifices, then the building. Joy and sorrow appear here mixed together, two reactions that will accompany the whole book.
When the seventh month comes and the Israelites are already in their towns, the people gather as one man in Jerusalem. Jeshua with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel with his companions, build the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings as written in the law of Moses. They set it on its old base, though they are afraid of the peoples of the land, and offer sacrifices morning and evening. They also keep the Feast of Booths and the daily burnt offerings, the new moons and the Lord's appointed feasts, even though the foundation of the temple had not yet been laid.
They pay masons and carpenters and give food, drink and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians to bring cedar logs from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, with the permission of Cyrus. In the second month of the second year they begin the work, and Levites twenty years old and up oversee the building.
When the builders lay the foundation, the priests in their vestments with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, praise the Lord as David had directed, singing that he is good and that his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel. All the people shout with a great shout. Yet many of the older men who had seen the first temple weep aloud, and the sound of joy and the sound of weeping are so mixed that no one can tell them apart, and the noise is heard from far away.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Jeshua and Zerubbabel, with the priests, build the altar to offer burnt offerings as written in the law of Moses. The first task is not a building but a return to obedience and worship.
Though they fear the peoples of the land, they set up the altar and offer burnt offerings to the Lord morning and evening. Their worship does not wait for fear to disappear: obedience moves forward even while afraid.
The singers praise the Lord because he is good and his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel. Praise rises when the foundation is laid, though the temple is far from finished.
While many shout for joy, the old men who saw the first temple weep. The two sounds mix: they celebrate what is new and grieve what was lost. Scripture leaves room for both at the same time.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: In the seventh month. — Ezra 3:1
Answer: Jeshua with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel with his companions. — Ezra 3:2
Answer: They feared the peoples of the land, yet they set up the altar and offered the morning and evening sacrifices. — Ezra 3:3
Answer: The Feast of Booths, as it is written. — Ezra 3:4
Answer: They praised the Lord because he is good and his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel. — Ezra 3:10-11
Answer: They had seen the first temple, and when they saw the new foundation they wept aloud. — Ezra 3:12
Ezra 3 encourages us to start with the essentials: turning to God in worship before everything is in order. In a class or small group you can ask which habit of worship needs restoring, even with fears or limited resources. The people offered sacrifices even without a temple.
It also teaches us to receive small beginnings with patience. Some rejoiced and others wept, and neither reaction is condemned. A healthy community can celebrate what God is doing now and honor the grief of those who remember what was lost.
Ezra 3 ends with the sound of joy and weeping heard from far away, a hint of what is coming. In chapter 4 the adversaries of the people appear and will try to stop the work just begun.
It was one of Israel's yearly feasts, in the seventh month, when the people lived in shelters made of branches for seven days to remember how God cared for them in the wilderness. Ezra says they kept it as written in the law of Moses, a sign that they wanted to be faithful to it.
Because they remembered the glory of the first temple, Solomon's, destroyed by Babylon. The second temple seemed small by comparison. The text does not criticize them; it shows that grief for what was lost and hope for what is new can live together among God's people.