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.

All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?

His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you."

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came 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 to comfort him.

When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and did not recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.

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

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

who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

Isn't their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.'

His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

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

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

In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

The caravans that travel beside them turn aside. They go up into the waste, and perish.

They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.

Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

He removes the mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

"Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,

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

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

But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."

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

Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

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

so man lies down and doesn't rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

His sons come to honor, and he doesn't know it. They are brought low, but he doesn't perceive it of them.

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

They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."

They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

"But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.

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

Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

"Oh that my words were now written. Oh that they were inscribed in a book.

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

The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

They tell God, 'Depart from us, for we do not want to know about your ways.

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

They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

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

"Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are.

When they cast down, you shall say, 'be lifted up.' He will save the humble person.

There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

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.

They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

"These are of those who rebel against the light. They do not know its ways, nor abide in its paths.

In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They do not know the light.

For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They do not turn into the way of the vineyards.

God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

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.

"This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from Shaddai.

"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.

He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

He binds the streams that they do not trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.

After my words they did not speak again. My speech fell on them.

They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They did not reject the light of my face.

They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them as after a thief;

So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

They abhor me, they keep their distance from me, and do not hesitate to spit in my face.

For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone's help.

As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.

Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

"If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me;

Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he.

"They are amazed. They answer no more. They do not have a word to say.

Shall I wait, because they do not speak, because they stand still, and answer no more?

My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.

Who doesn't respect the persons of princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.

In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.

Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.

because they turned aside from following him, and wouldn't pay attention to any of his ways,

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

"By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

There they cry, but none gives answer, because of the pride of evil men.

He doesn't withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,

then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.