Forasmuch as thou art sent by the king, and by his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thy hand;

And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,

And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the free-will-offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem:

That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat-offerings and their drink-offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.

And whatever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure-house.

Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, who hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem:

And weighed to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered:

Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, to which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.

Let thy ear now be attentive, and thy eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.

And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon-well, and to the dung-port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and their gates were consumed with fire.

Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

Palal, the son of Uzai, over against the turning of the wall, and the tower which lieth out from the king's high house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah, the son of Parosh.

And he spoke before his brethren, and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox should go up, he would even break down their stone wall.

Also I said, That is not good which ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?

Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days an abundance of all sorts of wine: yet for all this I required not the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

In which was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.

And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty seven priests' garments.

And all the people assembled as one man in the street that was before the water-gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

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.

And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:

Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

Moreover, thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from 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.

Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again to thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not to thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man doeth, he shall live in them:) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened to thy commandments and thy testimonies, with which thou didst testify against them.

For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.

They united with their brethren, 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 the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;

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

And at the fountain-gate, which was over against them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, even to the water-gate eastward.

And he had prepared for him a great chamber, where formerly they laid the meat-offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the offerings of the priests.

In those days I saw in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day in which they sold provisions.

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.

And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives will give to their husbands honor, both to great and small.

Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

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

And the letters were sent by posts 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 upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

So Hatach went forth to Mordecai, to the street of the city, which was before the king's gate.

Go, assemble all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and 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 the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:

Then the king returned out of the palace-garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen upon the bed on which Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him upon it.

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

And said, If it shall please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing shall seem right before 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 ye also for the Jews, as it pleaseth 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, no man may reverse.

Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day of it; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India to Cush, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, to every province according to the writing of it, and to every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.

In which the king granted the Jews who were in every city to assemble, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,

Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar,

As the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.

But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come to them,

And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a mail child conceived.

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

For the thing which I greatly feared hath come upon me, and that which I dreaded hath come to me.

Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

Doth not their excellence which is in them depart? they die, even without wisdom.

Call now, if there is any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison of which drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and in which the snow is hid:

Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thy iniquity deserveth.

The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

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

What knowest thou that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

I will show thee, hear me; and that which I have seen, I will declare;

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice in it.

Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

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

In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day-time: they know not the light.

Though it is given him to be in safety, on which he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.

I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

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

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vultur's eye hath not seen:

I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.

He looketh upon men, and if any shall say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;

That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.

Look to the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.

Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table would be full of fatness.

Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.

Which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly.

God thundereth marvelously with his voice; great things he doeth, which we cannot comprehend.

Hast thou with him spread out the sky which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass?

And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them.