Ezra 3:12-13

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ¹  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ²  – were weeping loudly, ³  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout. 3:13 People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly ⁴  that the sound was heard a long way off.

Ezra 10:1

The People Confess Their Sins

10:1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites – men, women, and children alike – gathered around him. The people wept loudly. ⁵ 

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¹ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

² sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

³ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

⁴ tn Heb “a great shout.”

⁵ tn Heb “with much weeping.”