Then the same Sheshbazzar came, and laid the foundations of God's house which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now has it been in building, and yet it is not completed.

Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let a search be made in the king's treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter."

Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.

In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God's house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid; its height sixty cubits, and its breadth sixty cubits;

with three courses of great stones, and a course of new timber: and let the expenses be given out of the king's house.

Also let the gold and silver vessels of God's house, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be restored, and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everyone to its place; and you shall put them in God's house.

Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in its place.

That which they have need of, both young bulls, and rams, and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail;

Also I have made a decree, that whoever shall alter this word, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this:

and the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who shall put forth their hand to alter the same, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with all diligence.

Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

Whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it be to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law.

Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "As you have said concerning us, so must we do.

Let now our leaders represent the whole assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God be turned from us, until this matter is resolved."

Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father's house have sinned.

Lord, I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was cup bearer to the king.

I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why shouldn't my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?"

Moreover I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;

Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we won't be disgraced."

I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. They said, "Let's rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

The sons of Hassenaah built the fish gate. They laid its beams, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.

Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the old gate. They laid its beams, and set up its doors, and its bolts, and its bars.

do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders."

Likewise at the same time said I to the people, "Let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day."

For there were that said, "We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live."

Some also there were that said, "We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine."

I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury.

that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together at Ha-Kephirim in the plain of Ono." But they intended to harm me.

You have also appointed prophets to preach of you at Jerusalem, saying, 'There is a king in Judah.' Now it will be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together."

I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home; and he said, "Let us meet together in God's house, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they will come to kill you; yes, in the night will they come to kill you."

I said to them, "Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand guard, let them shut the doors, and you bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, with everyone near his house."

The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-one.

Then Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani of the Levites stood up on the stairs, and cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

Moreover, in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

yet you in your manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, do not let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our leaders, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

Lod, and Ono, the valley of craftsmen.

and Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. The singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer.

had prepared for him a great room, where before they laid the meal offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers; and the wave offerings for the priests.

If it please the king, let a royal commandment go from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.

Then the king's servants who served him said, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women's house, to the custody of Hegai the king's eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them;

and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." The thing pleased the king, and he did so.

In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, the lot) before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries."

Esther said, "If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."

If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said."

Haman also said, "Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king.

Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet." This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.

The king's servants said to him, "Behold, Haman stands in the court." The king said, "Let him come in."

let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set.

And let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble officials, and let him clothe the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.'"

Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken."

Then Esther the queen answered, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

She said, "If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.

Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, "See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews.

The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor.

Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows."

because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast "Pur," that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;

King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the islands of the sea.

"Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, 'There is a boy conceived.'

Let that day be darkness. Do not let God from above seek for it, neither let the light shine on it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.

As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.

"Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has hedged in?

"Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances.

even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off.

Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn't spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.'"

If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

"Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

Hear diligently my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.

withdraw your hand far from me; and do not let your terror make me afraid.

Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer me.

But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.

"Earth, do not cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.

They change the night into day, saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.

"Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.

The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.

He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever.

though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;

All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

"Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of Shaddai.

that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led forth to the day of wrath?