Ezra 3:11-12

3:11 With antiphonal response they sang, ¹  praising and glorifying the Lord:

“For he is good;

his loyal love toward Israel is forever.”

All the people gave a loud ²  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 ³  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ⁴  – were weeping loudly, ⁵  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.

Zechariah 4:7

Oracle of Response

4:7 “What are you, you great mountain? ⁶  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ⁷  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ⁸  because of this.”

[3:11]  ¹ tn Heb “they answered.”

[3:11]  ² tn Heb “great.”

[3:12]  ³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

[3:12]  ⁴ sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

[3:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

[4:7]  ⁶ sn In context, the great mountain here must be viewed as a metaphor for the enormous task of rebuilding the temple and establishing the messianic kingdom (cf. TEV “Obstacles as great as mountains”).

[4:7]  ⁷ tn The word “temple” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent (cf. NLT “final stone of the Temple”).

[4:7]  ⁸ sn Grace is a fitting response to the idea that it was “not by strength and not by power” but by God’s gracious Spirit that the work could be done (cf. v. 6).