Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezra 3:12

"But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers` [houses], the old 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:" — Ezra 3:12 (ASV)

But many of the priests and Levites ... wept with a loud voice. —This most affecting scene requires the comment of Haggai 2:0 and Zechariah 4. The first house was destroyed in 588 BC, fifty years before. The weeping of the ancients was not caused by any comparison as to size and grandeur, unless they indeed noted the smallness of their foundation stones. They thought chiefly of the great desolation as measured by the past; the younger people thought of the new future.