This chapter relates how that the people of Israel returned from captivity, gathered to Jerusalem, and set up the altar, where sacrifices were offered, Ezra 3:1–3, and kept the feast of tabernacles, and offered the sacrifices of that, besides the daily sacrifice, and of other festivals; and…

And when the seventh month was come The month Tisri, which answers to part of September and October; or when it “was approaching” [[14]], for before it was actually come some following things were done, the people met, and an altar was built; for on the first day of it sacrifices were offered, ,…

Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak Who was the high priest, and the proper person to give the lead in the following work: and his brethren the priests; the common priests, very fit to join him, and assist him in it: and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel; the prince and governor of Judah, whose…

And they set the altar upon his bases Which might remain of the old altar; or the meaning is, that it was fixed and settled on the same spot where it stood before: for fear was upon them, because of the people of those countries; and therefore they hastened to erect an altar, and offer sacrifices…

They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written According to the rules prescribed for the observation of it in this began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month: and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required; for on all the…

And afterwards offered the continual burnt offering Not after the feast of tabernacles, as if they then began to offer the daily sacrifice; for that they did as soon as the altar was set up, and on the first day of the month, (Ezra 3:3, Ezra 3:6) , rather the sense is, that after the daily burnt…

From the first of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord And which day was not only a new moon, but a grand festival, the feast of blowing of trumpets, (Lev. 23:24, Lev.

They gave money also to the masons, and to the carpenters To buy stone and timber with for the building of the temple: and meat and drink and oil unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre; which were more agreeable to them than money, because there was not plenty of such things in their country, as…

Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem The place where it formerly stood; the Jews seem to have set out from Babylon, in the spring of the preceding year, as it was now of this; which to Jerusalem was a journey of about four months, as Ezra performed it, , but…

Then stood Jeshua, with his sons Not Jeshua the high priest before mentioned, but Jeshua the Levite, , and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together; the same with Hodaviah, to set forward the workmen in the house of God; to give them orders to begin and lay the foundation,…

And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord The masons, whose work it was, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets; these were set in a proper place by the prince and the high priest, in their priestly garments, with trumpets in their hands to blow with, as the…

And they sang together by course They sang by turns in responses, and answered one another, as the word signifies; when one company had performed their part, another took theirs: in praising and giving thanks to the Lord; for returning them to their own land, and giving them opportunity, ability,…

But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men Seventy or eighty years of age: that had seen the first house; the temple built by Solomon, as they very well might, since then it had been destroyed but fifty two years; for the seventy years captivity are to be…

So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people That is, not clearly and distinctly, they were so mixed and confounded together, and made such a jarring and discord: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar…