[75]
NOW in the seventh month after they were departed out of Babylon,
both Jeshua the high priest, and Zorobabel the governor, sent messengers
every way round about, and gathered those that were in the country together
to Jerusalem universally, who came very gladly thither. He then built the
altar on the same place it had formerly been built, that they might offer
the appointed sacrifices upon it to God, according to the laws of Moses.
But while they did this, they did not please the neighboring nations, who
all of them bare an ill-will to them. They also celebrated the feast of
tabernacles at that time, as the legislator had ordained concerning it;
and after they offered sacrifices, and what were called the daily sacrifices,
and the oblations proper for the Sabbaths, and for all the holy festivals.
Those also that had made vows performed them, and offered their sacrifices
from the first day of the seventh month. They also began to build the temple,
and gave a great deal of money to the masons and to the carpenters, and
what was necessary for the maintenance of the workmen. The Sidonians also
were very willing and ready to bring the cedar trees from Libanus, to bind
them together, and to make a united float of them, and to bring them to
the port of Joppa, for that was what Cyrus had commanded at first, and
what was now done at the command of Darius.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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