The {returned exiles} did so. Ezra the priest selected men, the heads of the {families} according to the house of their fathers, all of them by name. They sat down to examine the matter on the first day of the tenth month.

I got up during the night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anybody what my God put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. No animal [was] with me except the animal that I was riding on.

The prefects did not know where I had gone and what I was doing. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the prefects, and the rest of the workers.

{Next to them} the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles did not put their neck to the work of their lord.

Moreover, from the appointed day I was made their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes--twelve years. My brothers and I did not eat the food [allowance] of the governor.

The former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and they took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels. Also, their servants controlled the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God.

I also devoted myself to the work of this wall, and we did not buy land. All of my servants were gathered for the work.

Now what was prepared each day for me was one ox, six choice sheep, and birds. And every ten days all [kinds of] wine were made. But for this I did not demand the food [allowance] of the governor because the slavery was too heavy on this people.

"But they and our ancestors acted arrogantly and stiffened their neck and did not listen to your commandments.

They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders that you did among them. They stiffened their neck and in their rebellion {determined} to return to their slavery. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, {slow to anger}, abundant in loyal love, so you did not abandon them.

But you in your many mercies did not abandon them in the desert. The column of cloud [that was] over them in the day did not cease to leave them on the way, and the column of fire by night [that] gave light to them on the way that they went.

And you gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

Forty years you sustained them in the desert--they were not in need. Their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

"But they rebelled and were rebellious against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them to turn back to you, and they did great blasphemies.

You warned them so that they would return to your law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to your commandments but sinned against your judgments that a person must do so that they may live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.

You were patient toward them for many years, and you have warned them by your spirit through the hand of your prophets, but they did not listen. So you gave them into the hand of the nations of the lands.

But in your great compassions you did not put an end to them, and you did not abandon them. For you are a gracious and compassionate God.

Our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors did not keep your law and did not listen to your commandments and statutes that you declared to them.

And in their kingdom and in the greatness you gave to them, and in the wide and fertile land that you gave before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their evil deeds.

Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have given over us because of our sins, and [they are] ruling over our dead bodies and our livestock at their pleasure. We are in great trouble.

and their brothers who did the work of the house, eight hundred and twenty-two. And Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashhur, son of Malkijah,

because they did not come to meet the {Israelites} with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them in order to curse them--but our God changed the curse into a blessing.

Did not your ancestors do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city [too]? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!"

But I warned them and said to them, "Why are you spending the night opposite the wall? If you do [it again], I will lay hands against you." From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.

Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in this way? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet the foreign women made even him sin.

For this deed of the queen {will be known} to all the women, causing them {to look with contempt on their husbands}, as they will say, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him but she did not come!'

He was raising Hadassah, that [is] Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she did not have a father or a mother; the young woman [had] a beautiful figure and [was] very attractive. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had taken her as his daughter.

Esther did not disclose her people and her family because Modecai had charged her that she must not tell.

When the turn came near for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken [her] as a daughter, to go to the king, she did not ask anything except what Hegai the eunuch of the king who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther carried favor in the eyes of everyone that saw her.

Esther had not made known her family and her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her; for Esther {did what Mordecai told her}, just as when she was brought up by him.

And all of the king's servants who [were] at the gate of the king [were] kneeling and bowing down to Haman; for so the king had commanded concerning him, but Mordecai did not kneel and bow down.

They spoke to him day after day, but he did not listen to them, and they informed Haman to see if {Mordecai's resolve would prevail}; for he had told them that he [was] a Jew.

And Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might remove his sackcloth--but he did not accept [them].

And Mordecai went away and he did everything that Esther commanded him.

And Esther said, "If it is good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."

And Haman went out on that day rejoicing and {feeling good}. But when Haman saw Mordecai at the gate of the king, and he did not rise or tremble before him, Haman was filled {with rage toward} Mordecai.

{And Haman added}, "Esther the Queen did not let [just anyone] come to the banquet that she prepared with the king except me, and I am also invited tomorrow to her [banquet] with the king.

All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, governors, and {those who did the work of the king} [were] supporting the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

The Jews struck down all their enemies with {the sword}, killing and destroying [them]; and they did as they pleased with those that hated them.

the ten sons of Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews; but they did not {touch} the plunder.

Esther replied, "If it is good to the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who [are] in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let them hang Haman's ten sons on the gallows."

And the Jews were gathered who [were] in Susa, and on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed in Susa three hundred men, but they did not {touch} the plunder.

The rest of the Jews who [were] in the king's provinces gathered and {defended their lives} and {found repose} from their enemies. And they killed seventy-five thousand of those that hated them, but they did not {touch} the plunder.

the Jews established and adopted [it] for themselves and for their offspring, and for all who joined them. They did not neglect {to observe} these two days every year as it was written and appointed to them.

In all this, Job did not sin and did not {charge God with wrongdoing}.

So he said to her, "You speak like one of the foolish women speaks. Indeed, should we receive the good from God, but not receive the evil?" In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

Thus they lifted up their eyes from afar, but they did not recognize him, so they raised their voice, and they wept, and each man tore his outer garment and threw dust on their heads {toward the sky}.

because it did not shut the doors of my [mother's] womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

"Why did I not die at birth? [Why] did I [not] come forth from [the] womb and expire?

Why did [the] knees receive me and the breasts, that I could suck?

Or [why] was I not hidden like a miscarriage, like infants [who] did not see [the] light?

Did you not pour me out like milk and {curdle me} like cheese?

So why did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have passed away, {and no eye should have seen me}.

"Did you know this from of old, since the setting of [the] human being on earth,

for he has oppressed; he has abandoned [the] poor; he has seized a house but did not build it.

"Even today my complaint [is] bitter; my hand is heavy in addition to my groaning.

"The spirits of the dead tremble below [the] waters and their inhabitants.

After my word, they did not speak again, and my word dropped down [like dew] upon them.

I smiled for them [when] they had no confidence [in anything], and they did not extinguish the light of my face.

Did not he [who] made me in the womb make them? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

because I dreaded [the] great multitude, and [the] contempt of clans terrified me, so that I kept quiet, I did not go out of [the] doorway?

But he did not direct [his] words to me, and I will not answer him with your words.

Should he be told that I want to speak? Or did a man say that he would be communicated with?

From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who fathered [the] frost of heaven?

because God made it forget wisdom, and he did not give it a share in understanding.

And its young ones lick blood greedily, and where [the] dead carcasses [are], there they [are]."

'Who [is] this darkening counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I uttered, but I did not understand; {things too wonderful for me}, but I did not know.

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite [and] Zophar the Naamathite went and did just as Yahweh had told them, and {Yahweh accepted Job's prayer}.

I will tell the decree; Yahweh said to me: "You are my son; today I have begotten you.

You enlarged my step under me, and my ankles did not slip.

I chased my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back until they were finished [off].

They cried out but there was no rescuer, [even] to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.

You rescued me from strife with people; you set me as head (over) nations. People I did not know served me;

I have become forgotten like [one] dead, out of {mind}. I am like a destroyed vessel.

I made known my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not cover. I said, "I will confess concerning my transgressions to Yahweh," and you took away the guilt of my sin. Selah

But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered together; smiters whom I did not know gathered against me. They tore and did not cease.

For not with their sword did they possess [the] land, and their arm did not give them victory. Rather [it was] your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence, because you delighted in them.

You have sold your people {cheaply}, and did not profit by their price.

More numerous than the hairs of my head are [those] hating me without a cause. [Those who are] destroying me--my enemies wrongfully-- are mighty. What I did not steal, I then must restore.

and not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation [that] did not make ready its heart, whose spirit was not faithful [to] God.

They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to go in his law.

In front of their ancestors he did a wonder, in the land of Egypt, [in] the region of Zoan.

because they did not believe God, and they did not trust his salvation.

In spite of all this they sinned further and did not believe his wonders.

But he [was] compassionate; he pardoned [their] guilt and did not destroy [them]. And many [times] he turned back his anger and did not stir up all his wrath,

And they did not remember his {power} {when} he redeemed them from the enemy,

He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death but handed their life over to the plague.

But they tested and rebelled against God Most High and did not keep his statutes.

His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.

And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not chose the tribe of Ephraim,

He made it a statute in Joseph when he went out against the land of Egypt, [where] I heard a language I did not know.

But my people did not listen to my voice, and Israel did not yield to me.

Do to them as [you did with] Midian, as [with] Sisera, as [with] Jabin at the wadi of Kishon.

set free among the dead, like [the] slain lying in [the] grave, whom you no longer remember, even those cut off from your hand.

Do you work wonders for the dead? Or do [the] departed spirits rise up [to] praise you? Selah

And [so the] heavens will praise your wonderful deed, O Yahweh, even your faithfulness, in [the] assembly of [the] holy ones.

[The] righteous will flourish like the date palm. They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

For he [is] our God, and we [are] the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. {Today} if you will hear his voice:

He sent darkness and made [it] dark, and they did not rebel against his words.

Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand your wonderful works. They did not remember your many acts of loyal love, and [so] they rebelled by [the] sea at {the Red Sea}.