And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Say to the man who sent you to me,

But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have given ear to my words,

But he sent representatives to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against those with whom I am at war; and God has given me orders to go forward quickly: keep out of God's way, for he is with me, or he will send destruction on you.

Cyrus, king of Persia, has said, All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord, the God of heaven; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up.

These are the words of Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders.

So that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against authority there in the past: for which reason the town was made waste.

And now the sense of the letter which you sent to us has been made clear to me,

And I gave orders for a search to be made, and it is certain that in the past this town has made trouble for kings, and that outbursts against authority have taken place there.

This is to give the king word that we went into the land of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work is going on with industry, and they are doing it well.

Then this same Sheshbazzar came and put the house of God in Jerusalem on its bases: and from that time till now the building has been going on, but it is still not complete.

And may the God who has made it a resting-place for his name send destruction on all kings and peoples whose hands are outstretched to make any change in this or to do damage to this house of God at Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given this order, let it be done with all care.

And you, Ezra, by the wisdom of your God which is in you, are to put rulers and judges to have authority over all the people across the river who have knowledge of the laws of your God; and you are to give teaching to him who has no knowledge of them.

Praise be to the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing into the heart of the king, to make fair the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem;

And has given mercy to me before the king and his government and before all the king's great captains. And I was made strong by the hand of the Lord my God which was on me, and I got together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

For they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the peoples of the lands; and in fact the captains and rulers have been the first to do this evil.

I said, O my God, shame keeps me from lifting up my face to you, my God: for our sins are increased higher than our heads and our evil-doing has come up to heaven.

And now for a little time grace has come to us from the Lord our God, to let a small band of us get free and to give us a nail in his holy place, so that our God may give light to our eyes and a measure of new life in our prison chains.

For we are servants; but our God has not been turned away from us in our prison, but has had mercy on us before the eyes of the kings of Persia, to give us new strength to put up again the house of our God and to make fair its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here;

O Lord God of Israel, righteousness is yours; we are only a small band which has been kept from death, as at this day: see, we are before you in our sin; for no one may keep his place before you because of this.

So now let our rulers be representatives for all the people, and let all those in our towns who are married to strange women come at fixed times, and with them the responsible men and the judges of every town, till the burning wrath of our God is turned away from us, and this has been done.

They said to me, The small band of Jews now living there in the land are in great trouble and shame: the wall of Jerusalem has been broken down, and its doorways burned with fire.

And said to the king, May the king be living for ever: is it not natural for my face to be sad, when the town, the place where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, has been made waste and its doorways burned with fire?

And I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, and if your servant has your approval, send me to Judah, to the town where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, so that I may take in hand the building of it.

And now, our God, the great, the strong, the God who is to be feared, who keeps faith and mercy, let not all this trouble seem small to you, which has come on us, and on our kings and our rulers and on our priests and our prophets and our fathers and on all your people from the time of the kings of Assyria till this day.

But still, you have been in the right in everything which has come on us; you have been true to us, but we have done evil:

Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said, Why has the house of God been given up? And I got them together and put them in their places.

What is to be done by law to Vashti the queen, because she has not done what King Ahasuerus, by his servants, gave her orders to do?

And before the king and the captains, Memucan gave his answer: Vashti the queen has done wrong, not only to the king, but to all the captains and to all the peoples in all the divisions of the kingdom of King Ahasuerus;

For news of what the queen has done will come to the ears of all women, and they will no longer give respect to their husbands when it is said to them, King Ahasuerus gave orders for Vashti the queen to come before him and she came not.

And the wives of the captains of Persia and Media, hearing what the queen has done, will say the same to all the king's captains. So there will be much shame and wrath.

Then the king said, Let Haman come quickly, so that what Esther has said may be done. So the king and Haman came to the feast which Esther had made ready.

If I have the king's approval, and if it is the king's pleasure to give me my prayer and do my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast which I will make ready for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.

And the king said, What honour and reward have been given to Mordecai for this? Then the servants who were waiting on the king said, Nothing has been done for him.

So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What is to be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring? Then the thought came into Haman's mind, Whom, more than myself, would the king have pleasure in honouring?

And Haman, answering the king, said, For the man whom the king has delight in honouring,

And let the robes and the horse be given to one of the king's most noble captains, so that they may put them on the man whom the king has delight in honouring, and let him go on horseback through the streets of the town, with men crying out before him, So let it be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring.

Then Haman took the robes and the horse, and dressing Mordecai in the robes, he made him go on horseback through the streets of the town, crying out before him, So let it be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring.

Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, Who is he and where is he who has had this evil thought in his heart?

Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, See now, I have given Esther the family of Haman, and he has come to his death by hanging, because he made an attack on the Jews.

Then Esther said, If it is the king's pleasure, let authority be given to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow as has been done today, and let orders be given for the hanging of Haman's ten sons.

Have you yourself not put a wall round him and his house and all he has on every side, blessing the work of his hands, and increasing his cattle in the land?

But now, put out your hand against all he has, and he will be cursing you to your face.

And the Lord said to the Satan, See, I give all he has into your hands, only do not put a finger on the man himself. And the Satan went out from before the Lord.

With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; let the Lord's name be praised.

And the Satan said in answer to the Lord, Skin for skin, all a man has he will give for his life.

Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world.

There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest.

He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees.

But now it has come on you and it is a weariness to you; you are touched by it and your mind is troubled.

What I have seen is that those by whom trouble has been ploughed, and evil planted, get the same for themselves.

For wrath is the cause of death to the foolish, and he who has no wisdom comes to his end through passion.

Their produce is taken by him who has no food, and their grain goes to the poor, and he who is in need of water gets it from their spring.

So the poor man has hope, and the mouth of the evil-doer is stopped.

Truly, that man is happy who has training from the hand of God: so do not let your heart be shut to the teaching of the Ruler of all.

See, we have made search with care, and it is so; it has come to our ears; see that you take note of it for yourself.

Does the ass of the fields give out his voice when he has grass? or does the ox make sounds over his food?

Will a man take food which has no taste without salt? or is there any taste in the soft substance of purslain?

My soul has no desire for such things, they are as disease in my food.

He whose heart is shut against his friend has given up the fear of the Ruler of all.

My words may seem wrong to you, but the words of him who has no hope are for the wind.

Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment?

Put the question now to the past generations, and give attention to what has been searched out by their fathers:

It is all the same to me; so I say, He puts an end to the sinner and to him who has done no wrong together.

The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it?

You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.

But I have a mind as well as you; I am equal to you: yes, who has not knowledge of such things as these?

It seems that I am to be as one who is a cause of laughing to his neighbour, one who makes his prayer to God and is answered! the upright man who has done no wrong is to be made sport of!

Who does not see by all these that the hand of the Lord has done this?

Truly, my eye has seen all this, word of it has come to my ear, and I have knowledge of it.

Though a man comes to nothing like a bit of dead wood, or like a robe which has become food for the worm.

His sons come to honour, and he has no knowledge of it; they are made low, but he is not conscious of it.

Only his flesh still has pain, and his soul is sad.

He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword;

Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick;

And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.

He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth.

Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.

But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.

It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.

I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes;

I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.

He has made me a word of shame to the peoples; I have become a mark for their sport.

The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.

Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength.

He has no offspring or family among his people, and in his living-place there is no one of his name.

Truly, these are the houses of the sinner, and this is the place of him who has no knowledge of God.

Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.

My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.

He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.

He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him.

He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.

Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

For what interest has he in his house after him, when the number of his months is ended?

How the evil man goes free in the day of trouble, and has salvation in the day of wrath?

Who will make his way clear to his face? and if he has done a thing, who gives him punishment for it?

You do not give water to the tired traveller, and from him who has no food you keep back bread.

You have sent widows away without hearing their cause, and you have taken away the support of the child who has no father.