And the men did the work faithfully. Over them as supervisors [were] appointed Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites from the Merarites, and Zechariah and Meshullam from the Kohathites. And [other] Levites, all who were skilled in instruments of song,

And when they brought out the money that had been brought [to] the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found a scroll of the law of Yahweh by the hand of Moses.

They have dispensed the money which was found in the house of Yahweh and have put it into the hand of the overseers and those doing the work."

And she said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Say to the man who sent you all to me:

And the king went up to the house of Yahweh with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the priests and the Levites--all the people from great to small--and they read in their ears all the words of the scroll of the covenant that was found in the house of Yahweh.

Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, and he killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He showed no mercy on a young man, a virgin, [the] elderly, or decrepit. He delivered all into his hand.

And let every survivor, from wherever he {resides} be assisted by the men of that place with silver and gold, with possessions and domestic animals, and with the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem."

They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

the men of Netophah, fifty-six;

the men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;

the men of Micmash, one hundred and twenty-two;

the men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three;

And Jeshua son of Jehozadak and his brothers the priests stood up, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers built the altar of the God of Israel, in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

After [this, they presented] the daily sacrifice of burnt offerings, [the offerings] for the New Moon Festival, and for all of the appointed times consecrated for Yahweh and for all who gave a freewill offering to Yahweh.

So they gave money to the stone craftsmen and skilled craftsmen, and food, drink, and olive oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the authorization over them of Cyrus king of Persia.

this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him: "To King Artaxerxes [from] your servants, the men of [the province] Beyond the River. And now,

So now, issue forth a decree that these men stop and this city not be built, until a decree is issued from me.

Then we asked them this: "What are the names of the men who are building this building?"

And I issue forth a decree for what you should do for these elders of the Jews to build this house of God. The full expense will be paid to these men from the riches of the king from the taxes of [the province] Beyond the River, without delay.

With this money, then, with diligence you must buy young bulls, young rams, lambs, and their offerings and libations. You must offer them on the altar that is in the house of your God in Jerusalem.

With the good hand of our God before us, they brought us a man of understanding from the sons of Mahli, son of Levi, son of Israel--Sherebiah and his sons and brothers, eighteen [in total].

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children from Israel gathered to him. And the people wept bitterly.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat in the public square of the house of God trembling because of this matter and from the rains.

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.

They finished [investigating] all the men who married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

and one of my brothers, Hanani, came with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped the captivity and about Jerusalem.

O Lord, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to revere in your name. Please, let your servant be successful this day and give him compassion before this man." I was cupbearer for the king.

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.

And {next to him} the men of Jericho built, and {next to him} Zaccur son of Imri built.

{Next to them} Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and Mizpah who were under the rule of the governor of [the province] Beyond the River, repaired.

After him the priests, men from the vicinity, repaired.

Each of the builders had his sword tied to his side while building. And the man who sounded the trumpet was beside me.

At the time I also said to the people, "Let each man and his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they will be a guard for us in the night and work in the day."

So neither I nor my brothers nor my young men nor the men of the guard who were behind me took off our clothes. Each one [kept] his weapon [even] in the water.

And there were those who were saying, "We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king.

Also, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please stop [taking] this interest.

Please restore to them this day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, and the interest on the money, the grain, the grape juice, and the olive oil that you have been taking from them."

One hundred and fifty men, prefects and Jews, and those who came to us from the nations around us, [were] at my table.

But I said, "Should a man like me run away? And would a man like me go into the temple so that he can save his life? I will not go in!"

I gave command over Jerusalem to my brother Hanani and Hananiah the commander of the citadel. For he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.

These came with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

The men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight.

The men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight.

The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two.

The men of Kiriath-Jearim, Kephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three.

The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one.

The men of Micmash, one hundred and twenty-two.

The men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred and twenty-three.

The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two.

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly for [each] man and woman to hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.

He read from it facing the public square before the Water Gate from dawn until noon that day, opposite the men, women, and those with understanding. The ears of all the people [were attentive] to the book of the law.

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.

for the rows of bread, the offering of the daily sacrifice, the continual [burnt] sacrifice, the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, the appointed [festival] times, the holy objects, the sin offerings that make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.

All of the descendants of Perez who were living in Jerusalem [were] four hundred and sixty-eight able-bodied men.

And the heads of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their brothers opposite them, to praise and to give thanks by the command of David the man of God, section alongside section.

and his brothers Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani with the instruments of the songs of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe [went] before them.

On that day men were appointed for the storehouse rooms, the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, in order to gather in them from the fields of the cities the requirements of the law for the priests and Levites; for the joy of Judah [was] upon the priests and Levites standing there.

Tyrian men who lived in [Jerusalem] brought fish and every kind of merchandise and sold [it] on the Sabbath to the descendants of Judah and in Jerusalem.

So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates [to prevent] any {goods} being brought in on the day of the Sabbath.

So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: "Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

And the king said to the wise men, {the ones who know the times}--for it [was] the procedure of the king before all those who knew law and rights;

And he sent letters to all the provinces of the king, to each province according to its own script, and to every people in their own {language}, that every man should be the master of his house and who speaks in the {language} of his people.

And the king said to Haman, "The money [is] given to you and to the people to do with it {as you see fit}.

and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of money that Haman has promised to pay to the treasury of the king for the destruction of the Jews.

"All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that [if] any man or woman who goes to the king to the inner courtyard, who is not called, he has one law, to be killed, except if the king extends to him the gold scepter so that he may live. I have not been called to come to the king {for thirty days}."

And Haman came, and the king said to him, "What [is] to be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?" And Haman thought to himself, "Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?"

So Haman said to the king, "For a man whom the king wishes to honor,

And let the clothing and the horse be given {to the man} by the officials of the king's nobles; let them cloth the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him ride on his horse through the public square of the city, and let them proclaim before him, 'Thus, it will be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.'"

So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai and let him ride through the public square of the city; and he proclaimed before him, "Thus, it is done to the man whom the king wishes to honor."

And in the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men,

And the king said to Queen Esther, "In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? What [is] your petition? It will be granted to you. And what further [is] your request? It will be done."

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.

[There] was a man in the land of Uz whose name [was] Job. That man was blameless and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil.

Then his livestock came to be seven thousand sheep and goats and three thousand camels and five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred female donkeys, and he had very many slaves, and that man was greater than all the people of the east.

So Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you {considered} my servant Job? Indeed, there is no one like him on the earth--a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil."

So Yahweh {asked} Satan, "Have you {considered} my servant Job? Indeed, there is no one like him on the earth--a blameless man and upright and God-fearing and turning away from evil. And still he persists in his blamelessness {even though} you incited me against him to destroy him for nothing."

Then Satan answered him and said, "Skin for skin! All that {that} man has he will give for his life.

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}.

"Let [the] day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man-child is conceived.'

[Why does he give light] to a man whose way is hidden, and God has fenced him in [all] around?

Amid troubling thoughts from night visions, at [the] falling of deep sleep on men,

'Can a human being be more righteous than God, or can a man be more pure than his Maker?

Do you intend to reprove [my] words and [consider the] words of a desperate [man] as wind?

[Are] your days as the days of human beings, or your years as the days of man,

"Should an abundance of words go unanswered, or {a man full of talk} be vindicated?

I am a laughingstock to my friends: '[He] calls on God, and he answers him.' A righteous, blameless man [is] a laughingstock.

If he tears down, then it will not be rebuilt; if he shuts a man in, then he cannot be freed.

"But a man dies, and he dwindles away; thus a human being passes away, and where is he?

{so} a man lies down, and he does not arise. {Until the heavens are no more}, they will not awaken, and they will not be roused out of their sleep.

If a man dies, will he live [again]? All the days of my compulsory service I will wait, until the coming of my relief.

{How much less} he who is abominable and corrupt, a man drinking wickedness like water.

what wise men have told, and they have not hidden [that which is] from their ancestors,

"Can a man be of use to God? Yes, can [the] wise be of use to him?

And the land {belongs to the man of power}, and {the favored} lives in it.

Look, even [the] moon {is not bright}, and [the] stars are not pure in his sight.

[He] covers [the] face of [the] full moon; [he] spreads his cloud over it.

"Indeed, there is a mine for silver and a place {for gold to be refined}.

He breaks open a mine shaft {away from where people dwell}; [those] who are forgotten {by travelers}, they dangle, they sway [far away] from human beings.

Young men saw me and stepped aside, and [the] aged rose up [and] stood.