4. The people followed the rules for celebrating the Festival of Shelters and offered the proper sacrifices each day.
5. They offered sacrifices to please the Lord, sacrifices at each New Moon Festival, and sacrifices at the rest of the Lord's festivals. Every offering the people had brought was presented to the Lord.
6. Although work on the temple itself had not yet begun, the people started offering sacrifices on the Lord's altar on the first day of the seventh month of that year.
7. King Cyrus of Persia had said the Israelites could have cedar trees brought from Lebanon to Joppa by sea. So they sent grain, wine, and olive oil to the cities of Tyre and Sidon as payment for these trees, and they gave money to the stoneworkers and carpenters.
8. During the second month of the second year after the people had returned from Babylonia, they started rebuilding the Lord's temple. Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the priests, the Levites, and everyone else who had returned started working. Every Levite over twenty years of age was put in charge of some part of the work.