And the leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their colleagues, who stood opposite them to offer praise and thanks, one contingent corresponding to the other, as specified by David the man of God.

He made for himself a large storeroom where previously they had been keeping the grain offering, the incense, and the vessels, along with the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil as commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gate keepers, and the offering for the priests.

I also discovered that the grain offerings for the Levites had not been provided, and that as a result the Levites and the singers who performed this work had all gone off to their fields.

I gave instructions that Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a certain Levite named Pedaiah be put in charge of the storerooms, and that Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, be their assistant, for they were regarded as trustworthy. It was then their responsibility to oversee the distribution to their colleagues.

So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, "You will not marry off your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

In those days, as King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa the citadel,

in the third year of his reign he provided a banquet for all his officials and his servants. The army of Persia and Media was present, as well as the nobles and the officials of the provinces.

There were no restrictions on the drinking, for the king had instructed all of his supervisors that they should do as everyone so desired.

On the seventh day, as King Ahasuerus was feeling the effects of the wine, he ordered Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven eunuchs who attended him,

Now he was acting as the guardian of Hadassah (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, for neither her father nor her mother was alive. This young woman was very attractive and had a beautiful figure. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had raised her as if she were his own daughter.

When it became the turn of Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai (who had raised her as if she were his own daughter) to go to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai the king's eunuch, who was overseer of the women, had recommended. Yet Esther met with the approval of all who saw her.

Esther was still not divulging her lineage or her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her. Esther continued to do whatever Mordecai said, just as she had done when he was raising her.

As a result, all the king's servants who were at the king's gate were bowing and paying homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded. However, Mordecai did not bow, nor did he pay him homage.

A copy of this edict was to be presented as law throughout every province; it was to be made known to all the inhabitants, so that they would be prepared for this day.

"Don't imagine that because you are part of the king's household you will be the one Jew who will escape. If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear from another source, while you and your father's household perish. It may very well be that you have achieved royal status for such a time as this!"

The king said to her, "What is on your mind, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even as much as half the kingdom will be given to you!"

The king replied, "Find Haman quickly so that we can do as Esther requests." So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

While at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther, "What is your request? It shall be given to you. What is your petition? Ask for as much as half the kingdom, and it shall be done!"

If I have found favor in the king's sight and if the king is inclined to grant my request and perform my petition, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them. At that time I will do as the king wishes.

Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep, so he asked for the book containing the historical records to be brought. As the records were being read in the king's presence,

The king then said to Haman, "Go quickly! Take the clothing and the horse, just as you have described, and do as you just indicated to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Don't neglect a single thing of all that you have said."

On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, "What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done!"

Queen Esther replied, "If I have met with your approval, O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition.

For we have been sold -- both I and my people -- to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king."

When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet of wine, Haman was throwing himself down on the couch where Esther was lying. The king exclaimed, "Will he also attempt to rape the queen while I am still in the building!" As these words left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

A copy of the edict was to be presented as law throughout each and every province and made known to all peoples, so that the Jews might be prepared on that day to avenge themselves from their enemies.

The couriers who were riding the royal horses went forth with the king's edict without delay. And the law was presented in Susa the citadel as well.

The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, bringing death and destruction, and they did as they pleased with their enemies.

This is why the Jews who are in the rural country -- those who live in rural cities -- set aside the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a holiday for happiness, banqueting, holiday, and sending gifts to one another.

as the time when the Jews gave themselves rest from their enemies -- the month when their trouble was turned to happiness and their mourning to a holiday. These were to be days of banqueting, happiness, sending gifts to one another, and providing for the poor.

For this reason these days are known as Purim, after the name of pur.

Therefore, because of the account found in this letter and what they had faced in this regard and what had happened to them, the Jews established as binding on themselves, their descendants, and all who joined their company that they should observe these two days without fail, just as written and at the appropriate time on an annual basis.

to establish these days of Purim in their proper times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, and just as they had established both for themselves and their descendants, matters pertaining to fasting and lamentation.

"Why did I not die at birth, and why did I not expire as I came out of the womb?

Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.

but people are born to trouble, as surely as the sparks fly upward.

"But as for me, I would seek God, and to God I would set forth my case.

They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope about in the noontime as if it were night.

You will come to your grave in a full age, As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.

My brothers have been as treacherous as a seasonal stream, and as the riverbeds of the intermittent streams that flow away.

Do you intend to criticize mere words, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?

As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears, so the one who goes down to the grave does not come up again.

If I have sinned -- what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target? Have I become a burden to you?

"Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees?

Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust?

If I lift myself up, you hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you display your power against me.

I should have been as though I had never existed; I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave!

"As for you, if you prove faithful, and if you stretch out your hands toward him,

I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

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

Does not the ear test words, as the tongue tastes food?

Would it turn out well if he would examine you? Or as one deceives a man would you deceive him?

Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy?

As water disappears from the sea, or a river drains away and dries up,

But as a mountain falls away and crumbles, and as a rock will be removed from its place,

as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man's hope.

My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;

and he contends with God on behalf of man as a man pleads for his friend.

Why should we be regarded as beasts, and considered stupid in your sight?

As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth.

Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us, as he goes back and forth in the vault of heaven.'

They drive away the orphan's donkey; they take the widow's ox as a pledge.

The fatherless child is snatched from the breast, the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.

The drought as well as the heat carry away the melted snow; so the grave takes away those who have sinned.

If even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned,

He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters as a boundary between light and darkness.

"As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter --

I will maintain my righteousness and never let it go; my conscience will not reproach me for as long as I live.

The house he builds is as fragile as a moth's cocoon, like a hut that a watchman has made.

It hurls itself against him without pity as he flees headlong from its power.

Iron is taken from the ground, and rock is poured out as copper.

The earth, from which food comes, is overturned below as though by fire;

"O that I could be as I was in the months now gone, in the days when God watched over me,

just as I was in my most productive time, when God's intimate friendship was experienced in my tent,

"As soon as the ear heard these things, it blessed me, and when the eye saw them, it bore witness to me,

"Then I thought, 'I will die in my own home, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

They waited for me as people wait for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rains.

I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I lived like a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners.

They come in as through a wide breach; amid the crash they come rolling in.

whose heart did not bless me as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep,

if I looked at the sun when it was shining, and the moon advancing as a precious thing,

if I have covered my transgressions as men do, by hiding iniquity in my heart,

Yet God finds occasions with me; he regards me as his enemy!

In a dream, a night vision, when deep sleep falls on people as they sleep in their beds.

For the ear assesses words as the mouth tastes food.

will you, with him, spread out the clouds, solid as a mirror of molten metal?

As for the Almighty, we cannot attain to him! He is great in power, but justice and abundant righteousness he does not oppress.

"Are you acquainted with the way the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?

to whom I appointed the steppe for its home, the salt wastes as its dwelling place?

It ranges the hills as its pasture, and searches after every green plant.

She is harsh with her young, as if they were not hers; she is unconcerned about the uselessness of her labor.

But as soon as she springs up, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

Do you have an arm as powerful as God's, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

"Look now at Behemoth, which I made as I made you; it eats grass like the ox.

Will it make a pact with you, so you could take it as your slave for life?

Its back has rows of shields, shut up closely together as with a seal;

Smoke streams from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning rushes.

Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.

It regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.