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

the Jews ordained and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would observe these two days according to their writing and according to their fixed time, every year;

and that these days should be remembered and observed throughout every generation, in every family, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them cease from among their seed.

But he said to her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. We have also received good from God, and should we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Why did the knees meet me? and wherefore the breasts, that I should suck?

For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

Then should I yet have comfort; and in the pain which spareth not I would rejoice that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should have patience?

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him; that we should come together in judgment.

There is not an umpire between us, who should lay his hand upon us both.

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

Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man of much talk be justified?

Should thy fictions make men hold their peace? and shouldest thou mock, and no one make thee ashamed?

Will it be well if he should search you out? or as one mocketh at a man, will ye mock at him?

Wherefore should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

Who is he that contendeth with me? For if I were silent now, I should expire.

(If a man die, shall he live again?) all the days of my time of toil would I wait, till my change should come:

Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,

What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips should assuage your pain.

As for me, is my complaint to a man? or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient?

What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what are we profited if we pray unto him?

For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

There would an upright man reason with him; and I should be delivered for ever from my judge.

And how should man be just with God? Or how should he be clean that is born of a woman?

Be it far from me that I should justify you; till I die I will not remove my blamelessness from me.

Yea, whereto should the strength of their hands profit me, men in whom vigour hath perished?

I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid?

What then should I do when God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?

This also would be an iniquity for the judge, for I should have denied the God who is above.

Should I lie against my right? My wound is incurable without transgression.

Should he that hateth right indeed govern? and wilt thou condemn the All-just?

Who hath first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

What man is he that feareth Jehovah? him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.

Wherefore should I fear in the days of adversity, when the iniquity of my supplanters encompasseth me? --

That he should still live perpetually, and not see corruption.

Should I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats?

If I said, I will speak thus, behold, I should be faithless to the generation of thy children.

For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

That the generation to come might know them, the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell them to their children,

Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants that is shed be known among the nations in our sight.

So that I swore in mine anger, that they should not enter into my rest.

And he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach, to turn away his fury, lest he should destroy them.

Wherefore should the nations say, Where then is their God?

Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

How should we sing a song of Jehovah's upon a foreign soil?

Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, for in thee do I confide; make me to know the way wherein I should walk, for unto thee do I lift up my soul.

Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not whither.

when he imposed on the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

if thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

I searched in my heart how to cherish my flesh with wine, while practising my heart with wisdom; and how to lay hold on folly, till I should see what was that good for the children of men which they should do under the heavens all the days of their life.

And I hated all my labour wherewith I had been toiling under the sun, because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

There is nothing good for man, but that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

yea also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labour, it is the gift of God.

I know that whatever God doeth, it shall be for ever; there is nothing to be added to it, nor anything to be taken from it; and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

I said in my heart, It is thus with the children of men, that God may prove them, and that they should see that they themselves are but beasts.

And I have seen that there is nothing better than that man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion; for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

I saw all the living that walk under the sun, with the child, the second, that should stand up in his stead.

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an inadvertence. Wherefore should God be wroth at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?

In the day of prosperity enjoy good, and in the day of adversity consider: God hath also set the one beside the other, to the end that man should find out nothing of what shall be after him.

Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon; For why should I be as one veiled Beside the flocks of thy companions?

I have put off my tunic, how should I put it on? I have washed my feet, how should I pollute them? --

Oh that thou wert as my brother, That sucked the breasts of my mother! Should I find thee without, I would kiss thee; And they would not despise me.

I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, ... Why should ye stir up, why awake my love, till he please?

Why should ye be smitten any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Unless Jehovah of hosts had left us a very small residue, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

And he dug it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine; and he built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.

What was there yet to do to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? --

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that wieldeth it? As if the rod should wield them that lift it up; as if the staff should lift up him who is not wood!

Oh your perverseness! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay, so that the work should say of him that made it, He made me not; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no understanding?

Of her nobles who should proclaim the kingdom, none are there; and all her princes shall be nought.

Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

For mine own sake, for mine own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? and I will not give my glory unto another.

and thy seed would have been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof: their name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I should bring Jacob again to him; (though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength;)

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even these forget, but I will not forget thee.

The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to succour by a word him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed.

For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground: he hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

For this is as the waters of Noah unto me, since I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth: so have I sworn that I will no more be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

Is such the fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul, that he should bow down his head as a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to Jehovah?

to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, that beauty should be given unto them instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness: that they might be called terebinths of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.

Wherefore should I pardon thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not God. I have satiated them, and they have committed adultery, and they troop to the harlots' house.

To what purpose should there come to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing unto me.

Wherefore came I forth from the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?

For behold, I begin to bring evil on the city that is called by my name, and should ye be altogether unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of hosts.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear Jehovah, and supplicate Jehovah, and Jehovah repented him of the evil that he had pronounced against them? And we should be doing a great evil against our souls.

Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

For they prophesy falsehood unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

For I have not sent them, saith Jehovah, yet they prophesy falsely in my name; in order that I should drive you out, and that ye should perish, ye, and the prophets who prophesy unto you.

Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city become a waste?

Jehovah hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that there should be officers in the house of Jehovah, over every madman and self-made prophet, that thou shouldest put him in the stocks and in the shackles.

For this city hath been to me a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

and they have built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause to pass through the fire their sons and their daughters unto Molech: which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenant in respect of the day, and my covenant in respect of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season,

then shall also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers.

Hast thou not seen what this people have spoken, saying, The two families that Jehovah had chosen, he hath even cast them off? And they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

that every man should let his bondman, and every man his bondmaid, the Hebrew and the Hebrewess, go free, that none should exact service of them, that is, of a Jew his brother.

And all the princes and all the people that had entered into the covenant obeyed, every man letting his bondman and every man his bondmaid go free, that none should exact service of them any more: they obeyed, and let them go.

For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

And the princes said unto the king, Let this man, we pray thee, be put to death; for why should he weaken the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking to them according to these words? for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.