I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, who are disposed of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with thee.

And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily,

And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thy hand, set magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.

Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, who hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem:

Also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name.

Also the children of those that had been carried away, who had come out of the captivity, offered burnt-offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering: all this was a burnt-offering to the LORD.

Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them who have taken foreign wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter shall be turned from us.

All these had taken foreign wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thy ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cup-bearer.

But the fish-gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid its beams, and set up its doors, its locks and its bars.

And it came to pass, that when the Jews who dwelt by them came, they said to us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return to us they will be upon you.

And I looked, and arose, and said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be ye not afraid of them: remember the Lord who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

They who built on the wall, and they that bore burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.

So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.

And I said to them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, who were sold to the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold to us? Then they held their peace, and found nothing to answer.

Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.

And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

And my God put into my heart to assemble the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them who came up at the first, and found written in it,

These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one to his city;

Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number, I say, of the men of the people of Israel was this;

And these were they who went up also from Tel-mela, Tel-haresha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer: but they could not show their fathers house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel.

And of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai, who took one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite for a wife, and was called after their name.

Besides their man-servants and their maid-servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty seven: and they had two hundred and forty five singing-men and singing-women.

And Nehemiah, who is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy to our Lord: neither be ye sad; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

Thou art the LORD the God, who chosest Abram, and broughtest him forth from Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;

Nevertheless, they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets who testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.

Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried to thee, thou hearedest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them deliverers, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

And it yieldeth much increase to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

Moreover the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving, he and his brethren.

There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, who brought fish, and all manner of wares, and sold on the sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Cush, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

Then the king said to the wise men, who knew the times, (for so was the king's manner towards all that knew law and judgment:

And the next to him was Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and who sat the first in the kingdom;)

Likewise will the ladies of Persia and Media say this day to all the king's princes, who have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus will there arise too much contempt and wrath.

And let the maiden who pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.

Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens who were meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he preferred her and her maids to the best place of the house of the women.

In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, who kept the concubines: she came in to the king no more, except that the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.

Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, had come to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her.

In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those who kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it to Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king of it in Mordecai's name.

Then the king's servants who were in the king's gate, said to Mordecai, Why dost thou transgress the king's commandment?

Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.

All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except him to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.

For if thou shalt altogether hold thy peace at this time, then will there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house will be destroyed: and who knoweth, whether thou hast come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

And it was found written, that Mordecai had informed of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman had come into the outward court of the king's house, to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?

And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor,

And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor.

Then Haman took the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor.

And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife to him, If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou wilt not prevail against him, but wilt surely fall before him.

Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said to Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him upon it.

And said, If it shall please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing shall seem right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces:

In which the king granted the Jews who were in every city to assemble, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,

Then said Esther, If it shall please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do to-morrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

With kings and counselors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves;

Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

Who long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

If we essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can refrain from speaking?

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off;

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth?

Who doeth great things and unsearchable; wonderful things without number:

Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:

To set on high those that are low: that those who mourn may be exalted to safety.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

Who removeth the mountains, and they know not: who overturneth them in his anger.

Who shaketh the earth out of her place, and its pillars tremble.

Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.

Who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

Who maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

Who doeth great things past finding out; yes, and wonders without number.

Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say to him, What doest thou?

Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.

If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of its judges; if not, where, and who is he?

If he shall cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yes, who knoweth not such things as these?

I am as one mocked by his neighbor, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is derided.

Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?

Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall expire.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

What is man, that he should be clean? and he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like water?

To whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; my enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who will see it?

All my intimate friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.