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.
1 tnHeb “the heads of the fathers.”
2 sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.