And the king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.

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 shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king

Then Haman went forth that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he did not stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.

And Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his sons, and all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the rulers and servants of the king.

Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself, and tomorrow also I am 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 thou to the king that Mordecai may be hanged on it. Then go thou in merrily with the king to the banquet. And t

On that night the king could not sleep. And he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king.

And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of those who kept the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on king Ahasuerus.

And the king said, What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Then the king's servants who ministered to him said, There is nothing done for him.

And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman came into the outward court of the king's house to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

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

So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?

And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor,

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

And let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble rulers, that they may array the man therewith whom the king delights to honor, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the

Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that thou have spoken.

Then Haman took the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hastened to his house, mourning and having his head covered.

And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai, before whom thou have begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, thou shal

While they were yet talking with him, the king's chamberlains came, and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

And the king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.

For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage.

Then king Ahasuerus spoke and said to Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, who dares presume in his heart to do so?

And the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine [and went] into the palace garden. And Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

On that day king Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman the Jews' enemy to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her.

And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

And Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.

Then the king held out to Esther the golden scepter. So Esther arose, and stood before the king.

And she said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha

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

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

Write ye 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 no man reverse.

Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the twenty-third [day] of it. And it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and rulers

in which the king granted the Jews that were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province who would assault them, [t

upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, [namely], upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

A copy of the writing, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

And in every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a good day. And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have rule over them

the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt. And no man could withstand them, for the fear of them fell upon all the peoples.

And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would to those who hated them.

On that day the number of those who were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.

And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces! Now what is thy petition? And

Then Esther said, If it please 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 upon the gallows.

And the king commanded it so to be done. And a decree was given out in Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

And the Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan, but they did not lay their hand on the spoil.

[This was done] on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. And on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth [day] of it, and on the fourteenth of it, and on the fifteenth [day] of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar [a day of] gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.

And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far,

to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,

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

And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them,

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.

Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,

the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to the writing of it, and according to the appoin

Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, [with] words of peace and truth,

to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had ordained for themselves and for their seed in the matter of the fastings and their cry.

And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to what the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

For Mordecai the Jew was next to king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.

And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

And his sons went and held a feast in the house of each one upon his day, and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

And it was so, when the days of their feasting were completed, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, It may be that my so

Now it came to pass on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before LORD, that Satan also came among them.

And LORD said to Satan, From where do thou come? Then Satan answered LORD, and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.

And LORD said to Satan, Have thou considered my servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.

But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce thee to thy face.

And LORD said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in thy power, only upon himself do not put forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of LORD.

And it fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

that there came a messenger to Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,

and the Sabeans fell [upon them], and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and only I alone have escaped to tell thee.

While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God fell from heaven, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and only I alone have escaped to tell thee.

And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead, and only I alone have escaped to tell thee.

Again it came to pass on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before LORD, that Satan came also among them to present himself before LORD.

And LORD said to Satan, From where did thou come? And Satan answered LORD, and said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.

And LORD said to Satan, Have thou considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although thou m

But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face.

And LORD said to Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand, only spare his life.

So Satan went forth from the presence of LORD, and smote Job with severe boils from the sole of his foot to his crown.

And he took a potsherd for him to scrape himself with it, and he sat among the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, Do thou still hold fast thine integrity? Renounce God, and die.

But he said to her, Thou speak as one of the foolish women speaks. 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.

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that came upon him, they came each one from his own place--Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite--and they made an appointment together to come t

So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights. And none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day.

Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.

Let that day be darkness. Let not God from above seek for it, nor let the light shine upon it.

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

Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

There the prisoners are at ease together. They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

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

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

For the thing which I fear comes upon me, and that which I am afraid of comes to me.

If a man tries to converse with thee, will thou be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

But now it comes to thee, and thou faint. It touches thee, and thou are troubled.

Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.

Call now, is there any who will answer thee? And to which of the holy ones will thou turn?