Chapter Text
Rebuilding the Altar
Rebuilding the Temple Begins
Summary
In the seventh month, the people gather in Jerusalem. Jeshua the priest and Zerubbabel build the altar of burnt offering and reinstate the daily sacrifices, even though the temple foundation has not yet been laid. They celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and begin regular offerings. In the second year, they lay the temple foundation with trumpet blasts and singing. The older people who remember Solomon's temple weep while the younger generation shouts for joy.
Meaning
The priority of restoring the altar before even beginning the temple foundation reveals a crucial spiritual principle: worship cannot wait for perfect conditions. God's people must offer themselves to Him immediately, wherever they are.
The mingled weeping and shouting at the foundation laying captures the bittersweet reality of restoration. The old mourn what was lost while the young celebrate what is being born. Both responses are valid before God.
Background
The altar was built on its original site, maintaining continuity with the previous temple. The Feast of Tabernacles was particularly appropriate, as it celebrated both the harvest and God's provision during the wilderness wandering.
The foundation was laid in 536 BC, about fifty years after the temple's destruction.
Chapter Outline
- vv. 1The people gather as one
- vv. 2-3The altar rebuilt amid fear
- vv. 4-6Feasts and offerings restored
- vv. 7Materials secured from Tyre and Sidon
- vv. 8-9Levites appointed to oversee the work
- vv. 10-11Foundation laid with praise
- vv. 12-13Weeping and shouting intermingled
Key Verses
“And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.”— 3:3
Worship is restored before walls or temple are rebuilt, showing that fear of surrounding nations drove the returnees toward God rather than away from Him. The altar precedes the foundation, establishing that right relationship with God is the basis of any rebuilt life.
“And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.”— 3:11
This refrain echoes the dedication of Solomon's temple (2 Chronicles 5:13) and the Psalms (Psalm 136), binding the second temple to the first in covenant continuity. It became a defining liturgical confession of God's enduring covenant mercy.
“But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:”— 3:12
The mingling of grief and joy captures the bittersweet reality of restoration after judgment, where memory of past glory tempers present hope. Haggai and Zechariah would later address this very tension in the rebuilding community.
People & Places
People
- Jeshua son of Jozadak — High priest of the returned exiles who led the rebuilding of the altar and temple worship.
- Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel — Davidic governor of Judah who directed the civil leadership of the temple reconstruction.
- Kadmiel — A Levite who joined Jeshua in supervising the workmen on the house of God.
- Sons of Henadad — A Levitical family who assisted in overseeing the temple builders.
- Sons of Asaph — Levitical musicians who led praise with cymbals at the foundation ceremony, continuing David's appointed worship order.
- David — Referenced as the king who established the ordinance of temple worship now being revived.
- Moses — Referenced as 'the man of God' whose law governed the sacrificial pattern restored at the altar.
- Cyrus king of Persia — The Persian monarch whose decree authorized the return and the procurement of cedar from Lebanon.
Places
- Jerusalem — The covenant city where the returnees gathered to rebuild altar and temple.
- Zidon and Tyre — Phoenician coastal cities that supplied skilled labor and timber, as in Solomon's day.
- Lebanon — Source of the prized cedar trees used in temple construction.
- Joppa — The Mediterranean port where cedar was floated down from Lebanon for transport inland to Jerusalem.
Prophecy & Fulfillment
This chapter fulfills Jeremiah's prophecy that after seventy years of Babylonian captivity God would restore His people and renew worship in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 29:10-14). The decree of Cyrus referenced in verse 7 fulfills Isaiah's startling prediction, given over a century earlier, that a king named Cyrus would say of Jerusalem, 'Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid' (Isaiah 44:28). The mixed weeping and rejoicing of verses 12-13 also sets the stage for Haggai 2:3-9 and Zechariah 4:10, where God promises that the glory of this latter house will exceed the former—a promise ultimately fulfilled when Christ Himself entered its courts.
Devotional
Restoration often begins smaller than we hoped. The returned exiles built the altar before the walls and worshipped 'for fear was upon them'—turning anxiety into adoration rather than letting it paralyze them. That instinct is worth borrowing: when life feels exposed and unfinished, the first stone to lay is worship.
Notice too that joy and grief sounded together so loudly no one could tell them apart. God does not ask us to silence our sorrow before we sing. He receives the whole noise of a faithful heart—tears for what was lost, shouts for what He is still building.
Literary Style
Historical narrative in post-exilic Hebrew prose, marked by liturgical citation and ceremonial detail. The chapter weaves chronological markers, name lists, and an antiphonal praise refrain ('for his mercy endureth for ever'), culminating in a vivid auditory image that fuses lament and rejoicing into a single sound.