Study Desk

shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who practice these repulsive acts? Would You not be angry with us to the point of total destruction, so that there would be no remnant nor survivor?

I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your presence, [I ask] that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, so that I may rebuild it."

Then I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the provinces beyond the [Euphrates] River, so that they will allow me to pass through until I reach Judah,

and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, so that he will give me timber to construct beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, and for the city wall and for the house which I will occupy." And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation that we are in—how Jerusalem is desolate and lies in ruins and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, and let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a disgrace."

Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that everyone worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.

At that time I also said to the people, "Let each man with his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem so that they may serve as a guard for us at night and a laborer during the day."

For there were some who were saying, "We, along with our sons and our daughters, are many; therefore allow us to get grain, so that we may eat and survive."

He was hired for this reason, that I would be frightened and do as he said and sin, so that they would have [grounds to make] a malicious report in order to censure and disgrace me.

So they read from the Book of the Law of God, translating and explaining it so that the people understood the reading.

"You divided the sea before them, So that they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land; You hurled their pursuers into the depths, Like a stone into mighty and raging waters.

"But as soon as they had rest, they again did evil before You; Therefore You abandoned them into the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. Yet when they turned and cried out again to You, You heard them from heaven, And You rescued them many times in accordance with Your compassion,

Also on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy; the women and children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from far away.

On that day they read aloud from the book of Moses so that the people could hear [its words], and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite could ever enter the assembly of God,

I also discovered that the portions due the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone away, each one back to his own field.

Now when it began to get dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath [began], I commanded that the doors be shut and not be opened until after the Sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load [of merchandise] would enter [Jerusalem] on the Sabbath day.

"If it pleases the king, let a royal command be issued by him and let it be written in the laws of the Persians and Medes so that it cannot be repealed or modified, that Vashti is no longer to come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better and more worthy than she.

Now the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the [other] virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen in the place of Vashti.

A copy of the edict to be decreed as law in every province was published to all the peoples, so that they would be ready for this day.

When Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her [what had happened], the queen was seized by great fear. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he would remove his sackcloth, but he did not accept them.