They set up the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD—both the morning and evening burnt offerings—even though they feared the people of the land. They also celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in accordance with what is written, and they offered burnt offerings daily based on the number prescribed for each day. After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings and those for New Moons and for all the appointed sacred feasts of the LORD, as well as all the freewill offerings brought to the LORD. On the first day of the seventh month, the Israelites began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, although the foundation of the temple of the LORD had not been laid. They gave money to the masons and carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.
This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old. Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight. With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives, and a drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. And offer the second lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning, as a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD. For the generations to come, this burnt offering shall be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you.
Significance
The returnees' first act of worship was to restore "the morning and evening burnt offerings" (עֹלַת הַבֹּקֶר וְהָעָרֶב, olat haboqer veha'arev) on a rebuilt altar (Ezra 3:3), directly implementing the perpetual daily offering prescribed in Exodus 29:38-42: "two lambs that are a year old" (תְּמִידִים, temidim). This resumption of the tamid offering, even before the temple foundation was laid, signals that the returnees prioritized restoring YHWH's continuous worship presence over completing the building. The allusion to Exodus 29 frames the second temple's worship as direct continuity with the original Mosaic institution, re-establishing the unbroken rhythm of sacrificial approach to God.
