“I wish that one of you would close the temple doors, ¹  so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will no longer accept an offering from you.

“The rest, on both sides of the holy allotment and the property of the city, will belong to the prince. Extending from the eight and a quarter miles ¹  of the holy allotment to the east border, and westward from the eight and a quarter miles ²  to the west border, alongside the portions, it will belong to the prince. The holy allotment and the sanctuary of the temple will be in the middle of it.

In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, ¹  in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, ²  along with the rest of their associates, ³  the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed ⁴  the Levites who were at least twenty years old ⁵  to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple.

Their job was to help Aaron’s descendants in the service of the Lord’s temple. They were to take care of the courtyards, the rooms, ceremonial purification of all holy items, and other jobs related to the service of God’s temple. ¹ 

All of these were under the supervision of their fathers; they were musicians in the Lord’s temple, playing cymbals and stringed instruments as they served in God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the supervision of the king.

Here are the divisions of the priests and Levites who will perform all the service of God’s temple. All the willing and skilled men are ready to assist you in all the work and perform their service. ¹  The officials and all the people are ready to follow your instructions.” ² 

They donated for the service of God’s temple 5,000 talents ¹  and ten thousand darics ²  of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron.

He made the most holy place; ¹  its length was 30 feet, ²  corresponding to the width of the temple, and its width 30 feet. ³  He plated it with 600 talents ⁴  of fine gold.

Uzziah, who had an incense censer in his hand, became angry. While he was ranting and raving ¹  at the priests, a skin disease ²  appeared on his forehead right there in front of the priests in the Lord’s temple near the incense altar.

Then the leaders ¹  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ²  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ³ 

They observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for the Lord had given them joy and had changed the opinion ¹  of the king of Assyria ²  toward them, so that he assisted ³  them in the work on the temple of God, the God of Israel.

Be careful with them and protect them, until you weigh them out before the leading priests and the Levites and the family leaders of Israel in Jerusalem, ¹  in the storerooms of the temple of the Lord.”

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. ¹ 

Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ¹  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

So the people went out and brought these things ¹  back and constructed temporary shelters for themselves, each on his roof and in his courtyard and in the courtyards of the temple ²  of God and in the plaza of the Water Gate and the plaza of the Ephraim Gate.

for the loaves of presentation and for the regular grain offerings and regular burnt offerings, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed meetings, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the temple of our God.

The overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica. He was one of Asaph’s descendants who were the singers responsible for the service of the temple of God.

One day, ¹  as he was worshiping ²  in the temple of his god Nisroch, ³  his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. ⁴  They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

The Lord says, “I have rejected them because ¹  the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. ²  They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple ³  which I have claimed for my own ⁴  and have defiled it.

That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. ¹  I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. ²  Moreover, none of the people of Israel ³  are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.” ⁴