Ezra 3 · a question people ask
Why did the old men weep?
Ezra doesn't say. It says who they were, "many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first house" (3:12), and when they wept, "when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes" (3:12). It gives no reason, and it sets their weeping beside the joy of others without judging either (3:12-13). The book of Haggai has the LORD's word, which "came by Haggai the prophet" (Haggai 2:1), asking, "Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Isn’t it in your eyes as nothing?" (Haggai 2:3). The introduction to Ezra sets Haggai 2:3 beside 3:12, and these notes do the same, but Ezra 3 doesn't quote Haggai or name him (Haggai is first named in Ezra 5:1), and these notes don't supply the old men's reason for them.
The verses
“But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many also 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 far away.”
“In the seventh month, in the twenty-first day of the month, the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying,”
“‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Isn’t it in your eyes as nothing?”
“Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied to them in the name of the God of Israel.”