The builders laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple. Then the priests who were dressed in their robes took their places with trumpets, and the Levites who were Asaph’s descendants took their places with cymbals to praise the Lord according to the instructions of King David of Israel.
At their feasts there are lyres and harps, tambourines and flutes, and wine. Yet, they don’t pay attention to what the Lord is doing or see what his hands have done.
Wise people will understand these things. A person with insight will recognize them. The Lord’s ways are right. Righteous people live by them. Rebellious people stumble over them.
When anyone came to a pile of grain ⌞to get⌟ 20 measures, there would be only 10. And when anyone came to a wine vat to draw out 50 measures, there would be only 20 in it.
Carefully consider from now on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day when the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Carefully consider:
Before that time there was no money to hire any person or animal. No one who traveled was safe from the enemy. I turned every person against his neighbor.