Ezra 3:11

CELEBRATING THE OCCASION

"And they sang one to another in praising and giving thanks unto Jehovah, saying, For he is good; for his lovingkindness endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, the old men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off."

"They sang one to another" (Ezra 3:11). This means that the musical renditions were done antiphonally, from one choir answering another, or from a priestly soloist answered by the singers, or by some other antiphonal arrangement. "The Psalm they sang on that occasion was Psalms 136, which shows that they were thinking in terms of Jeremiah's great prophecy (Jeremiah 33:11)."[13] The overwhelming joy of the occasion came from the fact that nearly three quarters of a century of hopes and fears, sorrows and frustrations, had reached a happy climax; God had forgiven and restored his Chosen People to their homeland.

However, there were those whose weeping rivaled the shouts of joy! Why? The relative insignificance and poverty of that projected New Temple was in no way comparable to that magnificent and glorious Wonder of the World that was the Temple of Solomon. There is no wonder that the old men who could remember the former Temple in its glory could find only tears as they saw the projection of the structure that would take its place. And yet, the glory of the Second Temple would far surpass that of Solomon, because the Christ himself would appear in the Second!

"The people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping" (Ezra 3:13). This does not mean that the shout of joy was drowned out by the weeping; but that those who heard could not discern between them.[14] "Among Eastern people expressions of sorrow are by loud wailing, the howl of which is sometimes not easily distinguished from joyful acclamations."[15]