But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient 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:
But many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers ... wept with a loud voice. Those painful emotions were excited by the sad contrast between the prosperous circumstances in which the foundations of the first temple had been laid, and the desolate, reduced state of the country and city when the second was begun; between the inferior size and costliness of the stones used in the foundations of the second (1 Kings 7:9-10), and the much smaller extent of the foundation itself, including all the appurtenances of the building (Haggai 2:3); between the comparative smallness of their present means and the immense resources of David and Solomon. Perhaps, however, the chief cause of grief was, that the second temple would he destitute of those things which formed the great and distinguishing glory of the first, namely, the Ark, the Shechinah, the Urim and Thummim, etc. Not that this second temple was not a very grand and beautiful structure. But how great soever its material splendour, it was inferior in this respect to that of Solomon. Yet, however inferior in metals and gems, the glory of the second far outshone that of the first temple in another and more important point of view, namely, the receiving within its walls the incarnate Saviour (Haggai 2:9).