⁶ 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 had not been laid. ⁷ Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and ^(A)food, drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, ^(B)to bring cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea at ^(C)Joppa, according to the permission they had ^[a]from ^(D)Cyrus king of Persia.

Temple Restoration Begun

⁸ Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem in the second month, ^(E)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and ^(F)appointed the Levites from twenty years and older to oversee the work of the house of the Lord.