How did the returned exiles re-establish sacrificial worship before laying the foundations of the temple in Jerusalem?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The returned exiles built the altar on its bases and resumed daily holocausts and festive solemnities under the Law of Moses while in fear of surrounding peoples, before hiring craftsmen to lay the temple foundations amid mingled weeping and joyful praise.

Chapter breakdown

When the seventh month arrived and the children of Israel were in their cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem. Josue the son of Josedec rose up with his brethren the priests, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel with his brethren, to construct the altar of the God of Israel. Their purpose was to offer holocausts upon it according to the precepts set down in the law of Moses the man of God. (An annotation in the text notes that Josue, also called Jesus or Jeshua, was the high priest at that time.) Setting the altar upon its bases despite fear of the surrounding populations, they resumed the morning and evening burnt offerings to the Lord.

The assembly celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in the prescribed manner, offering daily holocausts according to the commandment for each day. Following this feast, they maintained the perpetual sacrifices for new moons, consecrated solemnities, and voluntary gifts. Sacrifice thus began on the first day of the seventh month, even though the foundations of the temple had not yet been laid.

To advance the building project, the community provided payment to stonecutters and masons, while furnishing meat, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians to transport cedar timbers from Lebanon to the port of Joppa, pursuant to the authorization granted by King Cyrus of Persia.

In the second month of their second year in Jerusalem, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel and Josue the son of Josedec, alongside their fellow priests, Levites, and returned exiles, commenced the construction work. They appointed Levites aged twenty and older to supervise the labor. Josue, his sons, and his brethren, Cedmihel and his sons, and the children of Juda joined together to oversee the workers in the house of God, assisted by the family of Henadad and their Levitical kin.

When the builders laid the temple foundations, the priests stood in ritual vestments with trumpets, and the Asaphite Levites held cymbals, offering praise to God in accordance with the ordinances of King David. Singing hymns together, they gave thanks to the Lord, professing that He is good and His mercy endures forever toward Israel. The assembled congregation raised a great shout of joy at the laying of the foundation. At the same time, many elder priests, Levites, and family heads who had seen the first temple wept aloud when the foundation lay before their eyes, while others shouted joyfully. The shouts of joy and sounds of weeping mingled so thoroughly that the voices could not be distinguished from one another, and the noise carried far into the distance.

The story inside

Context: In the seventh month, the returned Israelites gathered as one man in Jerusalem to resume sacrificial worship. Stakes: The temple of God remained unfounded while neighboring peoples caused fear, presenting the task of establishing lawful worship prior to the physical construction of the sanctuary. Action: Josue, Zorobabel, and the priests set the altar upon its bases, celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles and continual holocausts, provided money, meat, drink, and oil to prepare materials, and oversaw the laying of the foundations through Levitical supervisors. Consequence: The temple foundations were laid, accompanied by Davidic praise from vested priests and Levites, provoking both loud weeping from ancients who had seen the former temple and great shouts of joy from the people. Limits: Sacrificial worship began before the building was founded, and the foundation laying produced an indistinguishable mixture of joy and sorrow heard afar off.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Sacrificial worship under the Law of Moses was re-established upon the altar before the physical temple was founded.
2
Rebuilding the temple required coordinated leadership among priests, Levites, and craftsmen, funded through money and provisions authorized by Cyrus.
3
The laying of the temple foundations provoked a mixed communal response, mingling the joyful shouts of the people with the loud weeping of elders who had seen the former temple.

Test your recall

What mixed reaction occurred among the people and ancients when the masons laid the foundations of the temple?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 48136–48139
And Josue the son of Josedec rose up, and his brethren the priests, and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and his brethren, and they built the altar of the God of Israel that they might offer holocausts upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
Lines 48144–48146
And they set the altar of God upon its bases, while the people of the lands round about put them in fear, and they offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord morning and evening.
Lines 48159–48162
And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Libanus to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the Persians had given them.
Lines 48186–48189
But many of the priests and the Levites, and the chief of the fathers and the ancients that had seen the former temple; when they had the foundation of this temple before their eyes, wept with a loud voice: and many shouting for joy, lifted up their voice.