“And in the second year [536 B.C.E.] of their coming to the house of the true God at Jerusalem, in the second month [Ziv, or Iyyar; April/​May], Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jehozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem started; and they now put in positions the Levites from twenty years of age upward to act as supervisors over the work of the house of Jehovah.

Zerubbabel the governor of Judah and the rest of the returned exiles realized that their main mission in returning to their homeland was to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem for Jehovah’s worship.