4 Those
who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip
went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When
the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close
attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits
came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So
there was great joy in that city.
On
that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all
except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly
men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began
to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and
women and put them in prison.
When
the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the
people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. 2 Then Joshua
son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his
associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt
offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man
of God. 3 Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they
built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening
sacrifices. 4 Then in accordance with what is written, they
celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt
offerings prescribed for each day. 5 After that, they presented
the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all
the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord,
as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. 6 On the first day of the seventh
month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.
7 Then
they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive
oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea
from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.
8 In
the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in
Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of
the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the
captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old
and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. 9 Joshua and his sons and brothers and
Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah[a]) and the
sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in
supervising those working on the house of God.
10 When
the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and
the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of
Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:
“He
is good;
his love toward Israel endures forever.”
And
all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But
many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former
temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid,
while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish
the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people
made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
