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joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in the law of God, which had been given by Moses the servant of God, and to keep and do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

And these are the chiefs of the province that dwelt in Jerusalem; but in the cities of Judah dwelt every one in his possession in their cities, Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants.

and his brethren, chief fathers, two hundred and forty-two; and Amassai the son of Azareel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer;

and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, [who was] the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer; and Bakbukiah, the second among his brethren; and Abda the son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun:

And the residue of Israel, the priests, [and] the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance.

And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, Mattaniah, [who was] over the thanksgiving, he and his brethren;

and his brethren, Shemaiah, and Azareel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe before them.

And, with the singers and the doorkeepers, they kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification, according to the commandment of David [and] of Solomon his son.

And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given, and that the Levites and the singers that did the work had fled every one to his field.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among the many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; but even him did foreign wives cause to sin.

And I purified them from all foreigners, and appointed the charges of the priests and the Levites, every one in his service;

in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the fortress,

in the third year of his reign, he made a feast to all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the provinces being before him;

when he shewed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the splendid magnificence of his grandeur many days, a hundred and eighty days.

And the drinking was, according to commandment, without constraint; for so the king had appointed to all the magnates of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure.

But the queen Vashti refused to come at the word of the king which was [sent] by the chamberlains; and the king was very wroth, and his fury burned in him.

and when the king's edict which he shall make shall be heard throughout his realm—for it is great—all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, from the greatest to the least.

And he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people according to their language, That every man should bear rule in his own house, and should speak according to the language of his people.

and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the young virgins of beautiful countenance to Shushan the fortress, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hegai the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given.

And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter; for she had neither father nor mother—and the maiden was fair and beautiful—and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.