So he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, saying that every man should be the master and rule in his own home and that he should speak [in the household] in the language of his own people.

After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.

who had been deported from Jerusalem with the captives who had been exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled.

He was the guardian of Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. The young woman was beautiful of form and face; and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her in as his own daughter.

Esther did not reveal [the Jewish background of] her people or her family, for Mordecai had instructed her not to do so.

Now when it was each young woman’s turn to go before King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with [sweet] spices and perfumes and the beauty preparations for women—

Now as for Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her in as his [own] daughter, when her turn came to go in to the king, she requested nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch [and attendant] who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther found favor in the sight of all who saw her.

Esther had not revealed her family or her people [that is, her Jewish background], just as Mordecai had instructed her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her just as when she was under his care.

All the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate [in royal service] bowed down and honored and paid homage to Haman; for this is what the king had commanded in regard to him. But Mordecai [a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin] neither bowed down nor paid homage [to him].

Now it happened when they had spoken to him day after day and he would not listen to them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s reason [for his behavior] would stand [as valid]; for he had told them that he was a Jew.

But he disdained laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were (his nationality); so Haman determined to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who lived throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Then the king’s scribes (secretaries) were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to the king’s satraps (chief rulers), and to the governors who were over each province and to the officials of each people, each province according to its script (writing), each people according to their own language; being written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to find out what this issue was and why it had come about.

Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

So Mordecai went away and did exactly as Esther had commanded him.

As they drank their wine at the banquet, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.”

Then Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the large number of his sons, and every instance in which the king had magnified him and how he had promoted him over the officials and servants of the king.

Haman also said, “Even Queen Esther let no one but me come with the king to the banquet she had prepared; and tomorrow also I am invited by her [together] with the king.

It was found written there how Mordecai had reported that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, had planned to attack King Ahasuerus (Xerxes).

So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to ask the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows which he had prepared for him.

Then Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise counselors and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall in status, is of Jewish heritage, you will not overcome him, but will certainly fall before him.”

While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs (attendants) arrived and hurriedly brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, killed and wiped out of existence. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for our hardship would not be sufficient to burden the king [by even mentioning it].”

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s anger subsided.

On that day King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordecai came before the king, because Esther had disclosed what [relation] he was to her.

The king took off his signet ring which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman.

Then Esther spoke again to the king and fell down at his feet and wept and implored him to avert the evil plot of Haman the Agagite and his plan which he had devised against the Jews [because the decree to annihilate the Jews was still in effect].

For [at this time] the Jews had light [a dawn of new hope] and gladness and joy and honor.

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.

Now in the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar) on the thirteenth day when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the [very] day when the enemies of the Jews had hoped to gain power over them [and slaughter them], it happened the other way around so that the Jews themselves gained power over those who hated them.

The Jews assembled in their cities throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to apprehend those who wanted to do them harm; and no one could stand before them, for the fear of them [and their God] had fallen on all the peoples.

Even all the officials of the provinces and the chief rulers (satraps) and the governors and those who attended to the king’s business supported the Jews [in defeating their enemies], because the fear of Mordecai [and his God’s power] had fallen on them.

Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled, to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies, and kill 75,000 of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

So the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

For 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 find the right time] to disturb and destroy them.

But when it came before the king, he commanded in writing that Haman’s wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews was to return on his own head, and that he and his sons should [endure what he planned for the Jews and] be hanged on the gallows.

Therefore they called these days Purim after the name Pur (lot). And because of all the instructions in this letter, and what they had faced in this regard and what had happened to them,

to establish these days of Purim [to be observed] at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and as they had established for themselves and for their descendants with instructions regarding their times of fasting and their lamentations (expressions of needing help).

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had 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.

“I am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, and yet trouble still comes [upon me].”

“They were put to shame and disappointed because they had trusted [that they would find water];
They came there and were ashamed.

‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?
Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

‘I should have been as though I had not existed;
[I should have been] carried from the womb to the grave.’

“Why are we regarded as beasts,
As if [we are] stupid (senseless) in your eyes?

“Yet God draws away the mighty by His power;
He rises, but no one has assurance of life.

Because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
And the orphan who had no helper.

“I smiled at them when they did not believe,
And they did not diminish the light of my face.

“Indeed, how could the strength of their hands profit me?
Vigor had perished from them.

If I gloated and rejoiced because my wealth was great,
And because my [powerful] hand [alone] had obtained so much,

Elihu’s anger burned against Job’s three friends because they had found no answer [and were unable to determine Job’s error], and yet they had condemned Job and declared him to be in the wrong [and responsible for his own afflictions].

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were years older than he.

“For you say, ‘What advantage have you [by living a righteous life]?
What profit will I have, more [by being righteous] than if I had sinned?’

‘Hear, please, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct [and answer] me.’

“I had heard of You [only] by the hearing of the ear,
But now my [spiritual] eye sees You.

It came about that after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that 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 what is right, as My servant Job has.

The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him over all the [distressing] adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him a piece of money, and each a ring of gold.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

He had seven sons and three daughters.

You have rescued me from the contentions of the people;
You have placed me as the head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.

I would have despaired had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

I was mute and silent [before my enemies],
I refrained even from good,
And my distress grew worse.

If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or stretched out our hands to a strange god,

There they were, in great terror and dread, where there had been no terror or dread;
For God scattered the bones of him who besieged you;
You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.

We who had sweet fellowship together,
Who walked to the house of God in company.

But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.

If I had said, “I will say this,” [and expressed my feelings],
I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

And they forgot His [incredible] works
And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.

Before they had satisfied their desire,
And while their food was in their mouths,

So He brought them to His holy land,
To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.

So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
The tent in which He had dwelled among men,

Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].

From tending the ewes with nursing young He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.

Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him and cringe before Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.

You have withdrawn all Your wrath,
You have turned away from Your burning anger.

Before the mountains were born
Or before You had given birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God.

If the Lord had not been my help,
I would soon have dwelt in [the land of] silence.

He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron, whom He had chosen.

Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread and fear of them had fallen on the Egyptians.

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

Therefore He said He would destroy them,
[And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the gap before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.

He also made them objects of compassion
Among those who had carried them away captive.

Because they had rebelled against the precepts of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.

The cords and sorrows of death encompassed me,
And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;
I found distress and sorrow.

The arrogant utterly ridicule me,
Yet I do not turn away from Your law.

This has become mine [as the gift of Your grace],
That I observe Your precepts [accepting them with loving obedience].

They had almost destroyed me on earth,
But as for me, I did not turn away from Your precepts.

If Your law had not been my delight,
Then I would have perished in my time of trouble.

Too long my soul has had its dwelling
With those who hate 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 He had not yet made the earth and the fields,
Or the first of the dust of the earth.

I spoke with my heart, saying, “Behold, I have acquired great [human] wisdom and experience, more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of [moral] wisdom and [scientific] knowledge.”

I bought male and female slaves and had slaves born in my house. I also possessed herds and flocks larger than any who preceded me in Jerusalem.

Then I considered all which my hands had done and labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and chasing after the wind and there was no profit (nothing of lasting value) under the sun.

So I hated all the fruit (gain) of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will succeed me.

Then I looked again and considered all the acts of oppression that were being practiced under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.

If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he is not respected and is not given a proper burial [he is not laid to rest in the sepulcher of his fathers], then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he,