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.

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

And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, 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 perish from their seed.

Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

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

Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?

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

I should have been 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 full of talk be justified?

Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?

O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

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

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

But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man.

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

For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.

Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.

Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.

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 should be full of fatness.

Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against 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, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

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

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?

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

If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

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

I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

There is nothing better for a man, than 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.

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

I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

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

Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

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

What could have been done more 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?

For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

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

Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

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

For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?

For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?

And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.

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

But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

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 a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

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

The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.

For this city hath been to me as 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 built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire 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 the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;