Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.

Then Mordecai left and did everything that Esther had ordered him.

The king responded, "Bring Haman quickly so we may do what Esther has requested." So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Then Haman told them about his splendid wealth, the number of his sons, all the ways the king had honored him, and that he had promoted him above all the other officials and ministers of the king.

Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said, "Have a pole made 50 cubits high, and then in the morning speak to the king and have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet happy." This advice pleased Haman, and he had the pole made.

It was found recorded there that Mordecai had reported about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the entrance to the restricted areas of the palace, and that they had conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.

The king said, "Who is in the courtyard?" Now Haman had just entered the outer courtyard of the palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the pole he had set up.

Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His wise friends and his wife Zeresh told him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is one of the Jewish people, you won't prevail against him. Instead, you will surely fall before him."

While they were still talking to him, the king's eunuchs arrived, and they quickly took him to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Indeed, I and my people have been sold to be annihilated, killed, and destroyed. If we had just been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because the trouble wouldn't have been sufficient to bother the king."

When the king returned to the banquet hall from the palace garden, Haman was prostrate on the couch where Esther was. The king asked, "Will this man even assault the queen with me in the house?" The king had no sooner spoken than they covered Haman's face.

The king said, "Hang him on it." So they hanged Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and then the king's anger subsided.

That day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people, and Mordecai came into the king's presence because Esther had told him how Mordecai was related to her.

The king took off his signet ring that he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. Esther then put Mordecai in charge of Haman's property.

In each and every province, and in each and every city, in the places where the king's order and edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jewish people, along with a festival and a holiday. Many of the people of the land became Jews, because they had come to fear the Jewish people.

The Jewish people assembled in their towns throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus to strike out against those who intended to harm them, and no one could oppose them because all the people had come to fear the Jews.

All the provincial officials, the regional authorities, the governors, and those doing the king's work supported the Jewish people because the fear of Mordecai had come over them.

So the Jewish people made a tradition out of what they had begun to do and of what Mordecai had written to them,

since Hammedatha's son Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people, had plotted against the Jewish people to destroy them, and he had cast the (that is, the lot) to determine when to confuse and destroy them.

But when Esther came before the king, he ordered through a letter that the evil plot that Haman had devised against the Jewish people be rescinded, and that he and his sons be hanged on poles.

establishing these days of Purim at the prescribed time, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, and just as the Jewish people had established for themselves and for their descendants. The letter included instructions for their fasting and lamentations.

Seven sons and three daughters had been born to him.

When their time of feasting had concluded, Job would rise early in the morning to send for them and consecrate them to God. He would offer a burnt offering for each one, because Job thought, "Perhaps my children sinned by cursing God in their hearts." Job did this time and again.

"If I had died, I would be lying down by now, undisturbed, asleep, and at rest,

So why did you bring me out from the womb? I wish I had died, before anyone had seen me,

as if I had never existed; carried from the womb to the grave.

Zophar from Naamath had this to say:

Because he knows the road on which I travel, when he had tested me, I'll come out like gold.

"Whenever I went out to the city gate, a seat had been reserved for me in the plaza.

because I delivered the poor who were crying for help, along with orphans who had no one to help them.

After I spoke, they had nothing to say, when what I said hit them.

I smiled at them when they had no confidence, and no one could discourage me.

(even a poor man had grown up with me as if I were his father, and even though I had guided the widow from the time I was born),

if he hadn't thanked me from the bottom of his heart, if he had not been warmed by wool from my sheep,

But then Barachel's son Elihu from Buz, one of Ram's descendants, got really angry. He was furious with Job because he had been declaring himself righteous instead of vindicating God.

Furthermore, he was furious with his three friends because they had not answered Job, but instead had condemned him.

but when he saw that there had been no response from those three, he got even more angry.

because they've abandoned their pursuit of him and had no respect for any of his ways.

You should know! After all, you had been born back then, so the number of your days is great!

After these words had been spoken by the LORD to Job, the LORD spoke to Eliphaz from Teman: "My anger is burning against you along with your two friends, since you haven't spoken correctly about me, as did my servant Job.

So Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuah, and Zophar from Naamath did precisely as the LORD had spoken to them, because the LORD showed favor to Job.

The LORD restored Job's prosperity after he prayed for his friends. The LORD doubled everything that Job had once possessed.

Then all his brothers and sisters and all those who knew him before arrived. They ate food with him in his house, mourned for him, and consoled him for all the trouble that the LORD had brought and placed on him. Some gave him gold bullion and some brought gold earrings.

He also had seven sons and three daughters.

He digs a pit, even excavates it; then he fell into the hole that he had made.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or lifted our hands to a foreign god,

Whoever offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and I will reveal the salvation of God to whomever continues in my way." To the Director: A Davidic Psalm. When the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

We had good fellowship together; and we even walked together in the house of God!

You made your people go through hard times; you had us drink wine that makes us stagger.

Everyone was gripped with fear and acknowledged God's deeds, understanding what he had done.

The righteous rejoiced in the LORD, because they had fled to him for refuge. Let all the upright in heart exult. To the Director: A song. Lyrics by David.

However, before they had fulfilled their desire, while their food was still in their mouths,

The young men were consumed by fire, and the virgins had no marriage celebrations.

If the LORD had not been my helper, I would have quickly become silent.

where your ancestors tested me. They tested me, even though they had seen my awesome deeds.

He sent a man before them Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.

He sent his servant Moses, along with Aaron, whom he had chosen.

They had provoked anger by their deeds, so that a plague broke out against them.

They never destroyed the people, as the LORD had commanded them.

because they had rebelled against the command of God, despising the advice of the Most High.

God had promised in his sanctuary: "I will triumph and divide Shechem, then I will measure the valley of Succoth!

Had your instruction not been my pleasure, I would have died in my affliction.

Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt.

If the LORD had not been on our side let Israel now say

if the LORD had not been on our side, when men came against us,

Your eyes looked upon my embryo, and everything was recorded in your book. The days scheduled for my formation were inscribed, even though not one of them had come yet.

Even though he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the world's first grains of dust,

I acquired male and female slaves, and had other slaves born in my house. I also acquired for myself increasing numbers of herds and flocks more than anyone who had lived before me in Jerusalem.

So I became great, greater than anyone who had lived before me in Jerusalem. Throughout all of this, I remained wise.

Whenever I wanted something I had seen, I never refused that desire. Instead, I enjoyed everything I did, and this became the reward in what I had undertaken.

Then I examined all of my accomplishments that I had brought about by my own efforts, including the work that I had labored so hard to complete and it was all pointless, like chasing after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained on earth.

Then I despised everything I had worked for on earth, that is, the things that I will leave to the person who will succeed me.

So I came to be in despair about everything I had accomplished on earth.

So I commended the dead who had already died as being happier than the living who are still alive.

There was no end to all of his subjects or to all of the people who had come before them. But those who come along afterward will not be happy with him. This is also pointless and a chasing after wind.

Moreover, besides being wise himself, the Teacher taught people what he had learned by listening, making inquiries, and composing many proverbs.

I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held him and wouldn't let him go until I brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

I opened the door for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away; he was gone! My very life went out when he departed. I searched for him, but couldn't find him. I called out to him, but he didn't answer.

I went down to the walnut orchard, to look at the green sprouts in the valley, to see whether the vine had budded, whether the pomegranates had blossomed.

Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? Under theapple tree I awakened you. There your mother had gone into labor with you; there she went into labor and gave birth to you.

This is the vision that Amoz's son Isaiah had about Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom; we would be like Gomorrah.

"How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?" the LORD is asking. "I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don't enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.

I will sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: "The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

The seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he was flying.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a burning coal in his hand that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

"Give us advice; reach a decision! Cast your shadow as if night had come at high noon. Shelter the fugitives, And don't betray a single refugee.

All your leaders have fled together; she is captured without using bows. All of you who were caught were captured together, although they had fled while the enemy was still far away.

Furthermore, at that time, a great trumpet will be sounded, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and those who had been expelled to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on his holy mountain at Jerusalem.

But the people remained silent and didn't respond to him with so much as a single word, because the king had commanded, "Don't answer him."

Then Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, approached Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and let him know what the field commander had said.

So the field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, since he had heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish.

Now King Sennacherib had received this report concerning King Tirhakah of Cush: "He has marched out to fight against you."

Watch! I will make the shadow on the steps of the upper dial of Ahaz that marks the sun go ten steps backwards."'" Then the sunlight turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had gone down.

Now Isaiah had said, "Let them prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover."

Hezekiah also had asked, "What will be the sign for me to go up to the LORD's Temple?"

At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, when he heard he had been sick and had survived.

so he drenched him with the heat that is his anger, the violence of war. It enveloped him in flames, but still he had no insight. It burned him up, but he didn't take it to heart."

And neither had you heard, nor did you understand, nor did you open your ear long ago. Indeed, I knew that you would act very deceitfully, and they would call you a rebel from birth.

Now if only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea.