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For Mordecai was great in the kings house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.

When Esther came before the king, the scribe would say, Let the wicked plots which were devised against the Jews return upon the head of him who had devised them, and let him and his sons be hanged on the gallows.

And all the acts of his power and of his might and the glory of the greatness of Mordecai unto which the king promoted him, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia.

For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Akhshirash and became the chief over the Jews, and he sought the good of his people and spoke on behalf of all his race.

His substance was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East.

And his sons went and feasted in the house of each other on his appointed day; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

Thou hast rested thy hand of protection upon him and upon his house and upon his children and upon everything that he has everywhere; thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

And there was a day when Jobs sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brothers house;

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,

And the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, an innocent and upright man, one who reveres God, and turns away from evil? He still holds fast to his integrity, although you provoked me against him, to destroy him without cause.

And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man has will he give for his life, to save it.

But put forth thy hand now, and touch his flesh or his bone, and he will curse thee to thy face.

And the LORD said to Satan, Behold, he is delivered into your hands; only spare his life.

So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with cancer from the sole of his foot to his brain.

Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God, and die.

But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. We have indeed received Gods blessings, now shall we not also receive his afflictions? In all these misfortunes Job did not sin, nor did he blaspheme against God with his lips.

Now when Jobs three friends heard of all this misfortune that had come upon him, they set a time of meeting, and came to him every one from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to console and comfort him.

And when they lifted up their eyes from afar, they did not recognize him, and they lifted up their voices, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and threw dust upon their heads toward the heaven.

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

AFTER this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day wherein he was born.