Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

Ezra 3:6 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 6. From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

This verse dates the first offerings before the temple foundation existed

Read It With

  • Ezra 3:1–7

Read Ezra 3:1–7 together. This verse dates the first offerings before the temple foundation existed Read Ezra 3:1–7 as one complete Ezra thought unit: The people gather as one, Jeshua and Zerubbabel rebuild the altar despite fear, offerings resume according to Torah, and resources are arranged for cedar before the temple foundation is laid.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Altar and calendar precede architecture, showing both continuity with Torah and the vulnerability of worship before full institutional completion. Within that movement, this verse dates the first offerings before the temple foundation existed

Read Ezra 3:1–7 together

Why these verses belong together: The seventh-month gathering, altar construction, daily offerings, Feast of Tabernacles, ongoing offerings, and procurement of materials form the first worship-restoration scene; verse 8 begins foundation work in the second year.

Verse 1. And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.

Verse 2. Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

Verse 3. And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.

Verse 4. They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;

Verse 5. And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the LORD that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the LORD.

Verse 6. From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.

Verse 7. They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.

Follow the Context

  1. The people gather as one in Jerusalem, and priestly and civic leaders build the altar.
  2. Daily offerings and the Feast of Tabernacles resume according to written Torah despite fear.
  3. Money, food, drink, and oil are arranged for imported cedar under Cyrus's grant.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

Ezra 3:6 does not authorize a conclusion that exceeds Ezra 3:1–7. The unit's explicit boundary is: Gathering as one does not require silencing disagreement or difference.

What Remains True

Within Ezra's own literary movement, Ezra 3:6 dates the first offerings before the temple foundation existed.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Reestablish essential, safe practices early in a recovery while distinguishing what is functioning from what remains incomplete. Ezra 3:6 especially directs attention to how this verse dates the first offerings before the temple foundation existed.

Teach It Back

Explain Ezra 3:6's precise role in Ezra 3:1–7. Include its Persian-period, temple, Torah, identity, administrative, or family context as relevant, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion it does not authorize.

Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Ezra 3:1–7 — The altar is rebuilt before the temple
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: Ezra 3:1–7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew aramaic text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ezra

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic wording, morphology, names, clause relations, and translation controls.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezra.xml, Hebrew and Aramaic words and morphology for 3:1–7

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Ezra with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, Persian-period, numerical, and translation notes within the unit.

Exact location: NET Bible Ezra PDF, printed pp. 751–752, translation and translator notes on 3:1–7

Open source ↗
Open the complete thought-unit research record
Open a verse without taking it out of context.

Try Ezra 7:10, or Ezr 7:10.

Choose book, chapter, and verse