Ezra 3:2-9

2Jozadak's son, Jeshua, and some of the other priests in his family began to build the altar of Israel's God. Shealtiel's son, Zerubbabel, and some of his family also began to build it. They wanted to make burnt offerings on it. God's servant, Moses, had written about this in the law.

3The people who already lived near there made them afraid. But they built the altar on its foundation. Then they made burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar. They offered sacrifices on it every day, in the morning and in the evening.

4Then they had the Feast of Huts, as the law said they should do. On each day of the feast they made the right number of burnt offerings.

5After that, they made burnt offerings every day, and also at the time of each new moon. They made the right sacrifices for the special festivals, when people met together to worship the Lord. They also offered special gifts that people had chosen to give to the Lord.

6They began to offer those burnt offerings on the first day of the seventh month. That was before they had started to build the temple.

7The leaders gave money to men who could work with stone and wood. They sent food, drink and olive oil to the people in Tyre and Sidon. This was to pay for beams of wood from cedar trees. They would bring the wood from Lebanon on ships that came to Joppa. Cyrus, king of Persia, had commanded them to do this.

8The Israelites began to build the Lord's temple two years after they arrived in Jerusalem. In the second month of the year, Shealtiel's son, Zerubbabel, and Jozadak's son, Jeshua, began the work. All the priests and the Levites who worked with them in Jerusalem joined them. All the people who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon helped in the work. The leaders chose Levites who were 20 years old, or older, to have authority over the work.

9These are their names: Jeshua, his sons and his brothers. Kadmiel and his sons. (They were descendants of Hodaviah.) Henadad's sons, with their sons and brothers, who were Levites.