53 Although the people had not yet rebuilt God's Temple, everyone who had made a vow to God began to offer sacrifices on the first day of the seventh month.
54 The people gave money to pay the stonemasons and the carpenters; they gave food, drink,
55 and carts to be sent to the cities of Tyre and Sidon in exchange for cedar logs from Lebanon, which were to be floated to the harbor at Joppa. All of this was done according to the orders given by Emperor Cyrus of Persia.
56-57 So in the second month of the year after they came back to the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, they started the work and began laying the foundation. Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of the Jewish people, the priests, and the Levites—in fact, all the exiles who had come back to Jerusalem, joined in the work.
58 The Levites twenty years of age or older were put in charge of rebuilding the Temple for the Lord. The Levite Jeshua and his sons and relatives, his brother Kadmiel, the sons of Jeshua Emadabun, the sons of Joda son of Iliadun, and all their sons and relatives—in fact, all the Levites joined together to take charge of the rebuilding of the Temple.While the workers were building the Temple of the Lord,
59 the priests in their robes took their places with trumpets and other musical instruments in their hands, and the Levites of the clan of Asaph stood there with cymbals.
60 They praised the Lord and gave thanks to him according to the instructions handed down from the time of King David.