Study Desk

King Xerxes then said to Queen Esther and Mordecai, the Jew, "Look, I have hanged Haman for his plot against the Jews, and I have given Esther his property.

But Esther went to the king, and the king issued written orders with the result that Haman suffered the fate he had planned for the Jews—he and his sons were hanged from the gallows.

King Xerxes imposed forced labor on the people of the coastal regions of his empire as well as on those of the interior.

Mordecai the Jew was second in rank only to King Xerxes himself. He was honored and well-liked by his fellow Jews. He worked for the good of his people and for the security of all their descendants.

The morning after each feast, Job would get up early and offer sacrifices for each of his children in order to purify them. He always did this because he thought that one of them might have sinned by insulting God unintentionally.

You have always protected him and his family and everything he owns. You bless everything he does, and you have given him enough cattle to fill the whole country.

Then Job got up and tore his clothes in grief. He shaved his head and threw himself face downward on the ground.

He said, "I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing. The Lord gave, and now he has taken away. May his name be praised!"

But now suppose you hurt his body—he will curse you to your face!"

Job went and sat by the garbage dump and took a piece of broken pottery to scrape his sores.

His wife said to him, "You are still as faithful as ever, aren't you? Why don't you curse God and die?"

Like a storm, God destroys them in his anger.

"Can anyone be righteous in the sight of God or be pure before his Creator?

God does not trust his heavenly servants; he finds fault even with his angels.

Hungry people will eat the fool's crops— even the grain growing among thorns— and thirsty people will envy his wealth.

We cannot understand the great things he does, and to his miracles there is no end.

God bandages the wounds he makes; his hand hurts you, and his hand heals.

Almighty God has shot me with arrows, and their poison spreads through my body. God has lined up his terrors against me.

We cannot understand the great things he does, and to his miracles there is no end.

God's anger is constant. He crushed his enemies who helped Rahab, the sea monster, oppose him.