So Haman took the garment and the horse. He clothed Mordecai and paraded him through the city square, crying out before him, “This is what is done for the man the king wants to honor.”

Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai is Jewish, and you have begun to fall before him, you won’t overcome him, because your downfall is certain.”

Queen Esther answered, “If I have obtained your approval, my king, and if the king is pleased, spare my life—this is my request; and spare my people—this is my desire.

For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and extermination. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn’t be worth burdening the king.”

King Ahasuerus spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”

Esther answered, “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman.”

Haman stood terrified before the king and queen.

Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the house of wine drinking, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the palace?” As soon as the statement left the king’s mouth, Haman’s face was covered.

Harbona, one of the royal eunuchs, said: “There is a gallows 75 feet tall at Haman’s house that he made for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.”

The king commanded, “Hang him on it.”

On the twenty-third day of the third month (that is, the month Sivan), the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai ordered for the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. The edict was written for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

The king’s edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.

A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the peoples so the Jews could be ready to avenge themselves against their enemies on that day.

For Mordecai exercised great power in the palace, and his fame spread throughout the provinces as he became more and more powerful.

This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.

So the Jews agreed to continue the practice they had begun, as Mordecai had written them to do.

For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them.

For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.

Because of all the instructions in this letter as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them,

in order to confirm these days of Purim at their proper time just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them and just as they had committed themselves and their descendants to the practices of fasting and lamentation.

There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of perfect integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him, to destroy him without just cause.”

“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.”

“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

May the day I was born perish,
and the night when they said,
“A boy is conceived.”

Why was I not stillborn;
why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

Both small and great are there,
and the slave is set free from his master.

Why is light given to one burdened with grief,
and life to those whose existence is bitter,

Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?

I sigh when food is put before me,
and my groans pour out like water.

how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!

But mankind is born for trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.

He traps the wise in their craftiness
so that the plans of the deceptive
are quickly brought to an end.

They encounter darkness by day,
and they grope at noon
as if it were night.

See how happy the man is God corrects;
so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

You will know that your tent is secure,
and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

You will approach the grave in full vigor,
as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

We have investigated this, and it is true!
Hear it and understand it for yourself.

For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas!
That is why my words are rash.

Is bland food eaten without salt?
Is there flavor in an egg white?

What strength do I have that I should continue to hope?
What is my future, that I should be patient?

Is my strength that of stone,
or my flesh made of bronze?

My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi,
as seasonal streams that overflow

and become darkened because of ice,
and the snow melts into them.

So this is what you have now become to me.
When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

Reconsider; don’t be unjust.
Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.

My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt.
My skin forms scabs and then oozes.

Remember that my life is but a breath.
My eye will never again see anything good.

As a cloud fades away and vanishes,
so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.

What is man, that You think so highly of him
and pay so much attention to him?

Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Do reeds flourish without water?

Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish.

His source of confidence is fragile;
what he trusts in is a spider’s web.

He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine;
his shoots spread out over his garden.

If he is uprooted from his place,
it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”

Surely this is the joy of his way of life;
yet others will sprout from the dust.

Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?

God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?

If it is a matter of strength, look, He is the Mighty One!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”

The earth is handed over to the wicked;
He blindfolds its judges.
If it isn’t He, then who is it?

For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him,
that we can take each other to court.

There is no one to judge between us,
to lay his hand on both of us.

Then I would speak and not fear Him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.

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Is it good for You to oppress,
to reject the work of Your hands,
and favor the plans of the wicked?

Do You have eyes of flesh,
or do You see as a human sees?

even though You know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?

It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,
gloomy and chaotic,
where even the light is like the darkness.”

You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in Your sight.”

Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.

But a stupid man will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a man!

As for you, if you redirect your heart
and lift up your hands to Him in prayer—

if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents—

For you will forget your suffering,
recalling it only as waters that have flowed by.

You will be confident, because there is hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.

I am a laughingstock to my friends,
by calling on God, who answers me.
The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt
and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.

The life of every living thing is in His hand,
as well as the breath of all mankind.

Doesn’t the ear test words
as the palate tastes food?

Wisdom is found with the elderly,
and understanding comes with long life.

Would it go well if He examined you?
Could you deceive Him as you would deceive a man?

Man born of woman
is short of days and full of trouble.

Who can produce something pure from what is impure?
No one!

There is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its shoots will not die.

But a man dies and fades away;
he breathes his last—where is he?

As water disappears from the sea
and a river becomes parched and dry,

But as a mountain collapses and crumbles
and a rock is dislodged from its place,

as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil from the land,
so You destroy a man’s hope.

If his sons receive honor, he does not know it;
if they become insignificant, he is unaware of it.

Does a wise man answer with empty counsel
or fill himself with the hot east wind?

What do you know that we don’t?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?

Both the gray-haired and the elderly are with us,
men older than your father.

as you turn your anger against God
and allow such words to leave your mouth?

What is man, that he should be pure,
or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

how much less one who is revolting and corrupt,
who drinks injustice like water?

what was declared by wise men
and was not suppressed by their ancestors,

Dreadful sounds fill his ears;
when he is at peace, a robber attacks him.

He doesn’t believe he will return from darkness;
he is destined for the sword.

He wanders about for food, saying, “Where is it?”
He knows the day of darkness is at hand.

Though his face is covered with fat
and his waistline bulges with it,