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.

the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its 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 memory of them perish from their seed.

Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?

For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

"To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of Shaddai.

What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

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

Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

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

"Shouldn't the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?

Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

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

If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.

"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

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

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

As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?

What is Shaddai, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'

There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

"I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above.

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

For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.'

"Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from Shaddai, that he should commit iniquity.

For he doesn't need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.

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

that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?

Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever?

Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.

Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.

LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

That he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.

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

that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants' blood is being poured out.

He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.

Why should the nations say, "Where is their God, now?"

You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them.

Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.

Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out 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 you do not have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?

for it is better that it be said to you, "Come up here," than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

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

Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.

I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

Do not allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Do not protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.

Do not be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

Do not be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that do not withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come forth from them all.

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

When they tell you, "Consult with the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits who chirp and who mutter. Shouldn't a people consult with their gods, by consulting the dead on behalf of the living?"

Should an axe brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.

Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle. I would march on them and I would burn them together.

You turn things upside down. Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He did not make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

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

Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.

therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'

They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you did not hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

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

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.

yes, he says, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth."

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Shouldn't I punish them for these things?" says the LORD; "and shouldn't my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?

Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.

I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the LORD. I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them."'"

You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?

Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't save? Yet you, LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us."

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

For who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word, and heard it?

For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth,"' says the LORD of hosts.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD, and entreat the favor of the LORD, and the LORD relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls.

But 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 to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.

Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should this city become a desolation?'

'The LORD has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man who is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.

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

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 fire to Molech; which I did not command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.'

"Do not consider what this people has spoken, saying, 'The two families which the LORD chose, he has cast them off?' Thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, of a Jew his brother.

And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:

they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he lived among the people.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, "Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?"