Text -- Ezra 3:10-13 (NET)

3:10 When the builders established the Lord’s temple, the priests, ceremonially attired and with their clarions, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with their cymbals, stood to praise the Lord according to the instructions left by King David of Israel. 3:11 With antiphonal response they sang, praising and glorifying the Lord: “For he is good; his loyal love toward Israel is forever.” All the people gave a loud shout as they praised the Lord when the temple of the Lord was established. 3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders– older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established– were weeping loudly, 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 that the sound was heard a long way off.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Ezr 3:10

¹ sn This was a long, straight, metallic instrument used for signal calls, rather than the traditional ram’s horn (both instruments are typically translated “trumpet” by English versions).

² tn Heb “according to the hands of.”

³ sn See Ps 107:1; 118:1, 29; 136:1. Cf. 2 Chr 5:13; 7:3; 20:21.

NET Notes: Ezr 3:11

¹ tn Heb “they answered.”

² tn Heb “great.”

NET Notes: Ezr 3:12

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.”

NET Notes: Ezr 3:13

¹ tn Heb “a great shout.”