A reading from the book of Ezra.

When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.

Then arose Jeshua, the son of Josadak, with his fellow priest, and Zerubble, the son of Shielt, with his kinsmen,

and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it,

as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands,

and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening,

and they kept the Feast of Boots, as it is written,

and offered the daily

burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, and after that, the regular

burnt offerings, the offerings at the New Moon, and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord,

and the offerings of everyone who made a free real offering to the Lord.

From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt

offerings to the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid, so they gave

money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians, and the

Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus, King of Persia. Now in the second year after they're coming to the House of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerububel, the son of Shielteal, and Jesua, the son of Josadak, made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests, and the Levites, and all who had come to Jerusalem

from the captivity. They appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward to supervise the work

of the house of the Lord. And Jesua with his sons and his brothers, and Cadmiel and his sons,

the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons

of Hinnad and the Levites, their sons of God, along with the sons of Hennedad and the

Levites, their sons and brothers. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the

Lord, the priests and their vestments came forward with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of

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