and twenty bowls of gold, of one thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold.

Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

The LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this."

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.

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

The rulers did not know where I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work.

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.

There were also some who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. Neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards."

Then they said, "We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, even as you say." Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

Then I sent to him, saying, "There are no such things done as you say, but you imagine them out of your own heart."

I said, "Should such a man as I flee? Who is there that, being such as I, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in."

For there were many in Judah sworn to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as wife.

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the mountain, and get olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written."

and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is this day.

You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

"So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they pleased.

"Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are servants in it.

We cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law;

also the firstborn of our sons, and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God;

For there was a commandment from the king concerning them, and a settled provision for the singers, as every day required.

As for the villages, with their fields, some of the children of Judah lived in Kiriath Arba and its towns, and in Dibon and its towns, and in Jekabzeel and its villages,

As for the Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, there were recorded the heads of ancestral houses; also the priests, in the reign of Darius the Persian.

All Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the gatekeepers, as every day required: and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.

In those days I saw in Judah some men treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day in which they sold food.

Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him.

The king said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you."

For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said." So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

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."

Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

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 the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in front of me in the house?" As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may not be reversed by any man."

as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.

The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them;

to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry.

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

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.

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

but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

"But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.

My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.

My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

Do you intend to reprove words, seeing that the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'

They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

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

Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man's years,

Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

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

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

They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey's colt.

for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.

Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

"But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.

Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

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

Look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,

Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.

My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,

where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?

Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

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

How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.

who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.

They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

"As God lives, who has taken away my right, Shaddai, who has made my soul bitter.

I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

"Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.