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and his brethren, heads of fathers, two hundred forty and two; and Amashsai son of Azareel, son of Ahazai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer,

and Mattaniah son of Micha, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, [is] head -- at the commencement he giveth thanks in prayer; and Bakbukiah [is] second among his brethren, and Abda son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun.

And the rest of Israel, of the priests, of the Levites, [are] in all cities of Judah, each in his inheritance;

And the Levites [are] Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, Mattaniah, he [is] over the thanksgiving, and his brethren,

and his brethren Shemaiah, and Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, and Judah, Hanani, with instruments of song of David the man of God, and Ezra the scribe [is] before them;

And the singers and the gatekeepers keep the charge of their God, even the charge of the cleansing -- according to the command of David [and] Solomon his son,

And I know that the portions of the Levites have not been given, and they flee each to his field -- the Levites and the singers, doing the work.

`By these did not Solomon king of Israel sin? and among the many nations there was no king like him, and beloved by his God he was, and God maketh him king over all Israel -- even him did the strange women cause to sin.

And I have cleansed them from every stranger, and appoint charges to priests and to Levites, each in his work,

in those days, at the sitting of the king Ahasuerus on the throne of his kingdom, that [is] in Shushan the palace,

in the third year of his reign, he hath made a banquet to all his heads and his servants; of the force of Persia and Media, the chiefs and heads of the provinces [are] before him,

in his shewing the wealth of the honour of his kingdom, and the glory of the beauty of his greatness, many days -- eighty and a hundred days.

And the drinking [is] according to law, none is pressing, for so hath the king appointed for every chief one of his house, to do according to the pleasure of man and man.

and the queen Vashti refuseth to come in at the word of the king that [is] by the hand of the eunuchs, and the king is very wroth, and his fury hath burned in him.

and the sentence of the king that he maketh hath been heard in all his kingdom -- for it [is] great -- and all the wives give honour to their husbands, from great even unto small.'

and sendeth letters unto all provinces of the king, unto province and province according to its writing, and unto people and people according to its tongue, for every man being head in his own house -- and speaking according to the language of his people.

and servants of the king, his ministers, say, `Let them seek for the king young women, virgins, of good appearance,

and the king doth appoint inspectors in all provinces of his kingdom, and they gather every young woman -- virgin, of good appearance -- unto Shushan the palace, unto the house of the women, unto the hand of Hege eunuch of the king, keeper of the women, and to give their purifications,

A man, a Jew, there hath been in Shushan the palace, and his name [is] Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite --

and he is supporting Hadassah -- she [is] Esther -- daughter of his uncle, for she hath neither father nor mother, and the young woman [is] of fair form, and of good appearance, and at the death of her father and her mother hath Mordecai taken her to him for a daughter.