Ezra 3:6 (DRB)

Passage

From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer holocausts to the Lord: but the temple of God was not yet founded.

Nearby Context

Ezra 3:4 And they kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the holocaust every day orderly according to the commandment, the duty of the day in its day.

Ezra 3:5 And afterwards the continual holocaust, both on the new moons, and on all the solemnities of the Lord, that were consecrated, and on all in which a freewill offering was made to the Lord.

Ezra 3:6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer holocausts to the Lord: but the temple of God was not yet founded.

Ezra 3:7 And they gave money to hewers of stones and to masons: and meat and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Libanus to the sea of Joppe, according to the orders which Cyrus king of the Persians had given them.

Ezra 3:8 And in the second year of their coming to the temple of God in Jerusalem, the second month, Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Josue the son of Josedec, and the rest of their brethren the priests, and the Levites, and all that were come from the captivity to Jerusalem began, and they appointed Levites from twenty years old and upward, to hasten forward the work of the Lord.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "first", "seventh", "month", "began", "offer", "holocausts", "lord", and "temple". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "first" and "seventh", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 5's "And afterwards the continual holocaust both on..." into verse 7's "And they gave money to hewers of...", so "first" and "seventh" belong inside that flow. In Ezra context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "first" and "seventh" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.