And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who did the king's business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

The other Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hand on the plunder.

as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.

The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;

because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast "Pur," that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Therefore they called these days "Purim," from the word "Pur." Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,

to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry.

It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts." Job did so continually.

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn't believe that he listened to my voice.

"'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.

I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.

Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had none to help him,

I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They did not reject the light of my face.

if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

oh that I had one to hear me. (behold, here is my signature, let Shaddai answer me); let the accuser write my indictment.

Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he.

That you ask, 'What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?'

He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair.

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

It was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.

The LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.

He had also seven sons and three daughters.

I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.

I said, "Oh that I had wings like a dove. Then I would fly away, and be at rest.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.

If I had said, "I will speak thus;" behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

Before the mountains were brought forth, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul would have soon lived in silence.

The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them.

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

Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.

They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,

Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn't destroy them.

They had almost wiped me from the earth, but I did not forsake your precepts.

Unless your Law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace.

If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, let Israel now say,

if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us;

while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world.

I said to myself, "Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge."

I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem;

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, into the chamber of her who conceived me.

I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left; and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I did not find him. I called him, but he did not answer.

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.

"What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says the LORD. "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.

The LORD our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.

So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.

Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down."'"

The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover."

Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?"

At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

Oh that you had listened to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:

your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.

They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

"Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you.

Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

"'Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way."

I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she did not return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, did not fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down," says the LORD.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them. For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised devices against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house, and said to all the people:

but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' They shall dwell in their own land."'

But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the LORD's temple, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:

It happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, "You shall surely die.