There were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.”

then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me.

When I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined at home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night.”

He was hired for this reason, that I might become frightened and act accordingly and sin, so that they might have an evil report in order that they could reproach me.

He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam on his left hand.

All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.

Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law.

So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim.

The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing.

“You alone are the Lord.
You have made the heavens,
The heaven of heavens with all their host,
The earth and all that is on it,
The seas and all that is in them.
You give life to all of them
And the heavenly host bows down before You.

“You found his heart faithful before You,
And made a covenant with him
To give him the land of the Canaanite,
Of the Hittite and the Amorite,
Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite—
To give it to his descendants.
And You have fulfilled Your promise,
For You are righteous.

“Then You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
Against all his servants and all the people of his land;
For You knew that they acted arrogantly toward them,
And made a name for Yourself as it is this day.

“So You made known to them Your holy sabbath,
And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law,
Through Your servant Moses.

“Even when they made for themselves
A calf of molten metal
And said, ‘This is your God
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great blasphemies,

“You made their sons numerous as the stars of heaven,
And You brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers to enter and possess.

“But they became disobedient and rebelled against You,
And cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your prophets who had admonished them
So that they might return to You,
And they committed great blasphemies.

Likewise we cast lots for the supply of wood among the priests, the Levites and the people so that they might bring it to the house of our God, according to our fathers’ households, at fixed times annually, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law;

and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually,

Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;

Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites from all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem so that they might celebrate the dedication with gladness, with hymns of thanksgiving and with songs to the accompaniment of cymbals, harps and lyres.

because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin.

in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his princes and attendants, the army officers of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of his provinces being in his presence.

and were close to him: Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media who had access to the king’s presence and sat in the first place in the kingdom—

This day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s conduct will speak in the same way to all the king’s princes, and there will be plenty of contempt and anger.

If it pleases the king, let a royal edict be issued by him and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media so that it cannot be repealed, that Vashti may no longer come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal position to another who is more worthy than she.

The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Then the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his princes and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king’s bounty.

Esther had not yet made known her kindred or her people, even as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her as she had done when under his care.

Then Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai that he might remove his sackcloth from him, but he did not accept them.

He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict which had been issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show Esther and inform her, and to order her to go in to the king to implore his favor and to plead with him for her people.

Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows fifty cubits high made and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it; then go joyfully with the king to the banquet.” And the advice pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, “Behold indeed, the gallows standing at Haman’s house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai who spoke good on behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.”

In them the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them, including children and women, and to plunder their spoil,

This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

the Jews established and made a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually.

And all the accomplishments of his authority and strength, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?

Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him.

Dread came upon me, and trembling,
And made all my bones shake.

“By day they meet with darkness,
And grope at noon as in the night.

“Oh that my request might come to pass,
And that God would grant my longing!

‘Your hands fashioned and made me altogether,
And would You destroy me?

‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay;
And would You turn me into dust again?

“But would that God might speak,
And open His lips against you,

“With Him are wisdom and might;
To Him belong counsel and understanding.

“For he has covered his face with his fat
And made his thighs heavy with flesh.

“O that a man might plead with God
As a man with his neighbor!

“But He has made me a byword of the people,
And I am one at whom men spit.

“Oh that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come to His seat!

“It is God who has made my heart faint,
And the Almighty who has dismayed me,

“They push the needy aside from the road;
The poor of the land are made to hide themselves altogether.

“He has built his house like the spider’s web,
Or as a hut which the watchman has made.

“The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me,
And I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

“You have become cruel to me;
With the might of Your hand You persecute me.

“I have made a covenant with my eyes;
How then could I gaze at a virgin?

“Did not He who made me in the womb make him,
And the same one fashion us in the womb?

“Have the men of my tent not said,
‘Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat’?

“The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,
And that He might hear the cry of the afflicted—

“From the breath of God ice is made,
And the expanse of the waters is frozen.

When I made a cloud its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,

That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it?

Because God has made her forget wisdom,
And has not given her a share of understanding.

“Do you give the horse his might?
Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

“He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;
He goes out to meet the weapons.

“Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as you;
He eats grass like an ox.

“Nothing on earth is like him,
One made without fear.

If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready.

He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,
And has fallen into the hole which he made.

Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.

The Lord has made Himself known;
He has executed judgment.
In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared. Higgaion Selah.

He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him,
Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
And I destroyed those who hated me.

For You meet him with the blessings of good things;
You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.

O Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong;
You hid Your face, I was dismayed.

To You, O Lord, I called,
And to the Lord I made supplication:

Let the lying lips be mute,
Which speak arrogantly against the righteous
With pride and contempt.

Blessed be the Lord,
For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me;
Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”

But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;
And I am like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

I was mute and silent,
I refrained even from good,
And my sorrow grew worse.

“Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.

“I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,
Because it is You who have done it.

How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,
And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.

God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.

“Gather My godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

My God in His lovingkindness will meet me;
God will let me look triumphantly upon my foes.

You have made the land quake, You have split it open;
Heal its breaches, for it totters.

You have made Your people experience hardship;
You have given us wine to drink that makes us stagger.