In the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be built, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid; its height threescore cubits, and its breadth threescore cubits;
All Commentaries on Ezra 6:3 Go To Ezra 6
Bede
AD 735
And from the first day of the seventh month they began to offer a holocaust to the Lord. It has been said more than once that the seventh month stands for the sevenfold enlightenment of spiritual grace. So now it is well said that from the first day of the seventh month they began to offer a holocaust to the Lord, doubtless because from the very beginning of divine inspiration, human conscience must be transformed and, as it neglects the delights of the lowest level, burn to think and do only those things which are the Lord's. Is it not true that from the first day of the seventh month (that is, from the first illumination of divine grace) they “the Apostles” were offering holocausts of virtues to the Lord? For when the Holy Spirit came upon them in tongues of fire, immediately, as though transformed from what they had been before, they began to burn with new torches of a now intimate love and to preach the wonderful works of God in the tongues of all nations, and they were so dedicated through this holocaust indeed they themselves became a holocaust - that it would have been easier for them to be killed by those who had opposing beliefs than it would have been for them to be called away from their purpose. For this reason this same seventh month is deservedly called among the Hebrews the 'New Year', indicating to us by its name that it is given to the faithful through the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they might have the strength to fulfil the new commandment of mutual love and to proclaim a new song of heavenly praise in the construction of the Lord's house. Regarding the observance of this month, the Lord mystically commanded as follows: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there will be for you a memorial sabbath with trumpet blasts, and it shall be called holy. You shall do no servile work on it, and you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord. For there will be a memorial sabbath (i.e. a rest) on the first day of this month when the mind, enflamed by divine influence, abstains from worldly enticements and exerts itself in contemplating God's will. The priests blow the trumpets when the faithful work hard to preach to their neighbours also that glow of internal sweetness which they have begun. No servile work is performed on such a sabbath when, to please God, the mind keeps itself free from every pleasure and infection of sin, insofar as it is possible in this life. For sin is servile work because he who sins is surely a servant of sin; and for this reason a holocaust is rightly offered to the Lord on this Sabbath, no doubt because he whose whole heart burns with the fire of heavenly love is truly made free from the servitude of sin.
As to the literal meaning, it should be noted that in the seventh month it is reported that the people met in Jerusalem and there, when they had all gathered together, that Jeshua and Zerubbabel along with their brethren built an altar and from the first day of the seventh month offered a holocaust to the Lord. One thus infers that this altar was assembled very hastily from unpolished stones and not skilfully made from wood and covered with plates of brass, as was once customary. For even with a very huge crowd of builders there, the altar could not have been completed and prepared for offering a holocaust on it on one and the same day on which it was begun. For in the Book of Maccabees too it is shown that the altar was made from stones, and it is mentioned there that it was profaned by pagans and after six years restored by Judas Maccabaeus: And they took, it says, unhewn stones according to the Law, and built a new altar on the model of the previous one.
