There were also those saying, "We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine."

I said to them, "To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, so that we can then buy them back!" They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I can't come down. Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?"

But I said, "Should a man like me run away? And would a man like me go into the temple so that he can save his life? I will not go in!"

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews.

“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, day or night. I and my female servants will also fast in the same way. After that, I will go to the king even if it is against the law. If I perish, I perish.”

The king commanded, “Hurry, and get Haman so we can do as Esther has requested.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared.

For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

Ye, therefore, write concerning the Jews as may seem good in your own eyes, in the name of the king, and seal it with the kings signet-ring, - for a writing which hath been written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's signet-ring, none can reverse.

Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

If we venture to converse with you, will you be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

'Can a human being be more righteous than God, or can a man be more pure than his Maker?

how much less confidence does he have in those who dwell in houses of clay; who were formed from a foundation in dust and can perish like a moth?

Name me one else, if thou can find any: yea, look about thee upon any of the holy men.

who does great things that can't be fathomed, marvelous things without number;

He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can't perform their enterprise.

He delivereth thee out of six troubles, so that in the seventh there can no harm touch thee.

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

How painful honest words can be!
But what does your rebuke prove?

Do you think that you can disprove my words
or that a despairing man’s words are mere wind?

Is there injustice on my tongue? Or can my palate not discern calamity?

I am wasted away, Not, to times age-abiding, can I live, Let me alone, for, a breath, are my days.

How long wilt thou not look away from me? Wilt thou not let me alone, till I can swallow my spittle?

I have sinned, What can I do for thee, thou watcher of men? Wherefore hast thou set me as thine object of attack, or have I become, unto thee, a burden?

Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? can the reeds grow without water?

While they are still beginning to flower and not ripe for cutting, they can wither away faster than any grass!

"Truly I know that [it is] so, but how can a human being be just before God?

If he is pleased to contend with him, he can't answer him one time in a thousand.

He is wise in heart and strong in will who can be stubborn against him and succeed?

Lo! he cometh upon me, yet can I not see him, Yea he passeth on, yet can I not discern him.

Behold, he takes away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What do you?

{How much less} can I myself answer him? [How] can I choose my words with him,

Even if I'm in the right, I cannot answer him. I can only appeal for mercy.

If {it is a matter of} strength, look, [he is] mighty. But if {it is a matter of} justice, who can summon me?

As for the world, he giveth it over into the power of the wicked; and he shall cover the faces of the judges thereof. Is it not so? Where is he - or who is he - that can show the contrary?

"For [he is] not a mortal like me [that] I can answer him, [that] {we can come to trial together}.

and then shall I answer him without any fear. For as long as I am in such fearfulness, I can make no answer: And why?

Do you have eyes made of flesh? Can you look at things as humans do?

Can you live only as long as a human being? Or live the years of a mortal man?

You know that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand.

If I am wicked, woe unto me; and if I am righteous, yet can I not lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; therefore see my affliction;

Are my days not few? Stop it!
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little

Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?

Can you by searching find out God? can you find out the limits of the Almighty?

It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than Sheol; what can you know?

If he cuts off, and shuts up, or gathers together, then who can hinder him?

Then, indeed, you could lift up your face [to Him] without moral defect,
And you would be firmly established and secure and not fear.

Behold, he breaks down, and it cannot be built again: he shuts up a man, and there can be no opening.

[Will it be] well, if he examines you? Or can you deceive him like deceiving a human being?

Yes, this will result in my deliverance,
for no godless person can appear before Him.

Can anyone indict me?
If so, I will be silent and die.

Then call, and I will answer,
or I will speak, and You can respond to me.

You've locked my feet in stocks; you watch all my steps; You've limited where I can walk.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? no one.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;

look away from him and let him rest
so that he can enjoy his day like a hired hand.

If a man die, can he live again? All the days of my warfare, would I wait, until my relief should come: -

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, but we can the same?

"What [is] a human being, that he can be clean, or that [one] born of a woman can be righteous?

Appoint it, I pray thee - be thou surety for me with thyself, Who is there that, on my side, can pledge himself?

where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?

How long until you stop talking?
Show some sense, and then we can talk.

He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

“If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’
And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’

He vanisheth as a dream, so that he can no more be found, and passeth away as a vision in the night.

though he savors it and delays swallowing it so he can taste it again and again in his mouth,

Bear [with] me, and I myself will speak; then after my speaking you can mock.

Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he himself judges high ones?

Have ye not asked the passers-by in the way? And, their signs, can ye not recognise?

Who can declare - to his face - his way? And, what, he, hath done, who shall recompense to him?

So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?"

Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

Or darkness, that you can not see; and abundance of waters cover you.

And you say, How does God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?

Thick clouds cover him so he can't see as he walks back and forth at heaven's horizon.

Who said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do to us?

In that place, the upright can reason with him; and I'll be acquitted once and for all by my judge."

"If I go east, he is not there; if west, I can't find him;

He works to the north, but I can't see him. He turns south, but I can't catch a glimpse of him.

But he is of one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desires, even that he does.

Thus can I not get out of darkness, the cloud hath so covered my face.

And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, thinking, 'No eye can see me,' and covers his face with a mask.

He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,
but His eyes watch over their ways.

"And if [it is] not [so], then who can prove me a liar and reduce my word to nothing?"

Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?

How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

He holdeth back his stool, that it can not be seen, and spreadeth his clouds before it.

Lo, these are only parts of his ways: and how little a whisper is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

As long as I can breathe; as long as God's breath is in my nostrils,

The darkness shall once come to an end: he can seek out the ground of all things; the stones, the dark, and the shadow of death.

where stones are sapphire and gold dust can be found,

But where can wisdom be found,
and where is understanding located?

No man can know its value,
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.

It can't be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.

It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

Gold and glass can't equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, Against purest gold, can it not be weighed.

Destruction and Death say, 'With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.'

"I made a covenant with my eyes; how, then, can I focus my attention on a virgin?