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While all this was happening, I was not in Jerusalem, because I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the thirty-second year of his reign. Some time later I obtained leave from the king

I also learned that because the portions for the Levites had not been given to them, all the Levites and singers responsible for performing the service had gone back to their own fields.

I appointed as treasurers over the storerooms Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, with Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, to assist them, because they were considered trustworthy. They were responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.

Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, because she did not have a father or mother. The young woman was lovely in form and appearance, and when her father and mother had died, Mordecai had taken her in as his own daughter.

Esther did not reveal her people or her lineage, because Mordecai had instructed her not to do so.

All the royal servants at the King's Gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded this for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.

But he went only as far as the King's Gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate.

he sent back to her this reply: "Do not imagine that because you are in the king's palace you alone will escape the fate of all the Jews.

For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have held my peace, because no such distress would justify burdening the king."

That same day King Xerxes awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai entered the king's presence because Esther had revealed his relation to her.

So King Xerxes said to Esther the Queen and Mordecai the Jew, "Behold, I have given Haman's estate to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews.

In every province and every city, wherever the king's edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.

And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king's administrators helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced,

Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.

darkened because of the ice and the inflow of melting snow,

They are confounded because they had hoped; their arrival brings disappointment.

You will be secure, because there is hope, and you will look around and lie down in safety.