Now the food made ready for one day was one ox and six fat sheep, as well as fowls; and once in ten days a store of all sorts of wine: but all the same, I did not take the food to which the ruler had a right, because the people were crushed under a hard yoke.

And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.

And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;

And the reed sea didst thou divide in sunder before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea dry-shoed: and their persecutors threwest thou into the deep as a stone, in the mighty waters;

Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:

Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:

And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.

Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate:

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever;

Where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.

And he was pleased with the girl and was kind to her; and he quickly gave her what was needed for making her clean, and the things which were hers by right, and seven servant-girls who were to be hers from the king's house: and he had her and her servant-girls moved to the best place in the women's part of the house.

And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain nation living here and there in small groups among the people in all the divisions of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of any other nation, and they do not keep the king's laws: for this reason it is not right for the king to let them be.

If it please the king, let him write that they may be destroyed, and so will I weigh down ten thousand talents of silver, under the hands of the workmen, to be brought into the king's chamber."

And the king said to Haman, The money is yours, and the people, to do with them whatever seems right to you.

And the writings were sent by posts into all the king's lands, to root out, to kill, and to destroy all Jews, both young and old, children and women in one day, - namely upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar - and to spoil their goods.

It is common knowledge among all the king's servants and the people of every part of the kingdom, that if anyone, man or woman, comes to the king in his inner room without being sent for, there is only one law for him, that he is to be put to death; only those to whom the king's rod of gold is stretched out may keep their lives: but I have not been sent for to come before the king these thirty days.

And when the king saw Esther the queen waiting in the inner room, looking kindly on her he put out the rod of gold in his hand to her. So Esther came near and put her fingers on the top of the rod.

On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

They shall bring in the clothing of the kingdom which the king was clothed in, it and the horse which the king rode upon him, and the crown of the kingdom which was given upon his head:

and let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man therewith whom the king delighteth to honor, and cause him to ride 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 took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor.

And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who [is] he, and where [is] he, who {gave himself the right to do this}?"

Then the king put out the rod of gold to Esther, and she got up before the king.

And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be 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 which are in all the king's provinces:

Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse.

The king's scribes were quickly summoned -- in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. They wrote out everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia -- a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all -- to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language.

And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries:

The king’s edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.

So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace.

In each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s command and his decree arrived, the Jews celebrated with gladness and joy, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews [and their God] had fallen on them.

The rest of the Jews in the royal provinces assembled, defended themselves, and got rid of their enemies. They killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they did not seize any plunder.

And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,

because during those days the Jews got rid of their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday. They were to be days of feasting, rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and the poor.

And the Jews received it that they had begun to do, and that Mordecai wrote unto them:

For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and he had cast pur, that [is] the lot, to rout them out and destroy them.

Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.

And Esther commanded to establish these acts of this Purim, and to write them in a book.

So the Lord said to Satan, "All right then, everything he has is in your power. Only do not extend your hand against the man himself!" So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

While he was still speaking, another [messenger] also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and have taken them away and have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

So Yahweh said to Satan, "{All right}, he [is] in your {power}. Only spare his life."

“Remember now, who, being innocent, ever perished?
Or where [and in what circumstances] were those upright and in right standing with God destroyed?

‘Can [mortal] man be just before God or be more righteous than He?
Can a man be pure before his Maker or be more cleansed than He?

I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

You'll go to your grave at a ripe old age; like a stack of grain that's harvested at just the right time.

Lo, this -- we searched it out -- it is right, hearken; And thou, know for thyself!

How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

Doth the papyrus shoot up without mire? doth the reed-grass grow without water?

While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

“Yes, I know it is true.
But how can a mortal man be right before God?

If He passes by me, I wouldn’t see Him;
if He goes right by, I wouldn’t recognize Him.

How much less may I give an answer to him, using the right words in argument with him?

For though I were righteous, I could not answer.
I must appeal for mercy to my Opponent and Judge.

“Though I am innocent and in the right, my own mouth would pronounce me guilty;
Though I am blameless, He would denounce me as guilty.

They pass by like skiffs of reed; as an eagle that swoops upon the prey.

Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

I speak, and do not fear Him, But I am not right with myself.

‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress,
To reject the labor of Your hands,
And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?

I should have been as though I had never existed; I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave!

Are all these words to go unanswered? and is a man seen to be right because he is full of talk?

Since thou hast said, Right is my doctrine, and pure am I in his eyes.

But if you put your heart right, stretching out your hands to him;

But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to put things right are of no value.

Will you say in God's name what is not right, and put false words into his mouth?

He will certainly put you right, if you have respect for persons in secret.

Lo! he may slay me, yet , for him, will I wait, - Nevertheless, my ways - unto his face, will I show to be right:

Now then, I have prepared my case;
I know that I am right.

“For You write bitter things against me [in Your indictment]
And make me inherit and suffer for the iniquities of my youth.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

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

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.

My face is red with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

That he would maintain the right of a man with God, And of a son of man with his neighbor!

“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

"For he has stumbled into a net with his own feet; he walked right into the network!

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am undone: My hope hath he taken away from me, as it were a tree plucked up by the root.

His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

How vain, then, is the comfort that ye give me? Are not your answers clean contrary to right and truth?"

“Is it any pleasure or joy to the Almighty that you are righteous?
Or is it of benefit to Him that you make your ways perfect?

Put yourself now in a right relation with him and be at peace: so will you do well in your undertakings.

“There the righteous and upright could reason with Him;
So I would be acquitted forever by my Judge.

On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

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

“They crowd the needy off the road;
The poor of the land all hide themselves.

How can a human being become right with God? How can a human being be pure?

As God liveth, who hath taken away my right, And the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul:

“Far be it from me that I should admit you are right [in your accusations against me];
Until I die, I will not remove my integrity from me.

“I hold fast my uprightness and my right standing with God and I will not let them go;
My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

With the river of water parteth he asunder the strange people, that knoweth no good neighborhead; such as are rude, unmannerly and boisterous.

Man putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock, he overturneth the mountains by the root.

Black corals and crystal will not be mentioned, and wisdom's price [is] more than red corals.

I put on righteousness as my clothing, and was full of it; right decisions were to me a robe and a head-dress.

My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

Who used to pluck off the mallow by the bushes, with the root of the broom for their food;