I said to them, "Don't let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand guard, let them shut the doors, and you bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, with everyone near his house."

That which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand minas of silver, and sixty-seven priests' garments.

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel.

Ezra the scribe stood on a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchijah, and Hashum, and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, [and] Meshullam.

Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, "Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! Bessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise!

Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

yet you in your manifold mercies didn't forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud didn't depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.

Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you allotted according to their portions. So they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn't listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land which you gave before them, neither did they turn from their wicked works.

they joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

Moreover the porters, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, who kept watch at the gates, were one hundred seventy-two.

The chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers over against them, to praise and give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch next to watch.

Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the watch at the storehouses of the gates.

All Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, as every day required: and they set apart [that which was] for the Levites; and the Levites set apart [that which was] for the sons of Aaron.

had prepared for him a great room, where before they laid the meal offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the wave offerings for the priests.

In those days saw I in Judah some men treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys [therewith]; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I testified [against them] in the day in which they sold food.

that in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace,

Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.

When the king's decree which he shall make is published throughout all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will give their husbands honor, both great and small."

So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

Letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to city square which was before the king's gate.

"Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set.

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said, "Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman's house." The king said, "Hang him on it!"

The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

She said, "If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am 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 who are in all the king's provinces.

Write also to the Jews, as it pleases 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 not be reversed by any man."

Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.

on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),

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.

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,

All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

"Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, 'There is a boy conceived.'

For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.

fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

"Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

"'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.

But now you number my steps. Don't you watch over my sin?

The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.

Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?

"I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:

(Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him.

That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

"Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

"Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me.

For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'

Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,

I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me.

For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

"This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.

Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst.

My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.

He sings before men, and says, 'I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn't profit me.

Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good.

Teach me that which I don't see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more'?

I wish that Job were tried to the end, because of his answering like wicked men.

Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.

Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a broad place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,

Which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.

God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can't comprehend.

Can you, with him, spread out the sky, which is strong as a cast metal mirror?

Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?

Now men don't see the light which is bright in the skies, but the wind passes, and clears them.

which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;

"Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

"See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.

Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?

You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn't know.

The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Yahweh, in the morning you shall hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly.

May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed. They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly. A meditation by David, which he sang to Yahweh, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite.

He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;

The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.

The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.