4. Following the written directions, they celebrated the Festival of Booths. Each day they sacrificed the required number of burnt offerings.
5. After that, they sacrificed the daily burnt offerings, the offerings for the New Moon Festival and all the other holy festivals of the Lord, and all the freewill offerings brought to the Lord.
6. They started to bring these burnt offerings to the Lord on the first day of the seventh month, even though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.
7. So they gave money to the stonecutters and carpenters. Then they gave food, drink, and olive oil to the men from Sidon and Tyre in exchange for cedar, which the men would bring by sea from Lebanon to Joppa as King Cyrus of Persia had authorized them to do.
8. Zerubbabel (who was Shealtiel’s son), Jeshua (who was Jozadak’s son), and the rest of the Jews, (the priests, Levites, and all the others who had come back from exile to Jerusalem) began to rebuild the temple. This happened in the second month of the second year following their return to ⌊the site⌋ of God’s house in Jerusalem. They began by appointing the Levites who were at least 20 years old to direct the work on the Lord’s house.