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But these things please me not, while I see Mardochaeus the Jew in the court.

And Zosara his wife and his friends said to him, Let there be a gallows made for thee of fifty cubits, and in the morning do thou speak to the king, and let Mardochaeus be hanged on the gallows: but do thou go in to the feast with the king, and be merry. And the saying pleased Aman, and the gallows was prepared.

But the Lord removed sleep from the king that night: and he told his servant to bring in the books, the registers of daily events, to read to him.

And the king said to Aman, What shall I do to the man whom I wish to honour? And Aman said within himself, Whom would the king honour but myself?

And Mardochaeus returned to the palace: but Aman went home mourning, and having his head covered.

And the Jews assembled in Susa on the fourteenth day of Adar, and slew three hundred men, but plundered no property.

also how he went in to the king, telling him to hang Mardochaeus: but all the calamities he tried to bring upon the Jews came upon himself, and he was hanged, and his children.

And Mardochaeus established it, and the Jews took upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon those that were joined to them to observe it, neither would they on any account behave differently: but these days were to be a memorial kept in every generation, and city, and family, and province.

But put forth thine hand, and touch all that he has: verily he will bless thee to thy face.

Then the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I give into thine hand all that he has, but touch not himself. So the devil went out from the presence of the Lord.

Nay, but put forth thine hand, and touch his bones and his flesh: verily he will bless thee to thy face.

And when much time had passed, his wife said to him, How long wilt thou hold out, saying, Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance? for, behold, thy memorial is abolished from the earth, even thy sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows; and thou thyself sittest down to spend the nights in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labours and my pangs which now beset me: but say some word against the Lord, and die.

But he looked on her, and said to her, Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things of the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things?

But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it; let blackness come upon it;

But let that night be pain, and let not mirth come upon it, nor joy.

But let him that curses that day curse it, even he that is ready to attack the great whale.

Hast thou been often spoken to in distress? but who shall endure the force of thy words?

But if there had been any truth in thy words, none of these evils would have befallen thee. Shall not mine ear receive excellent revelations from him?

But as when terror falls upon men, with dread and a sound in the night,

I arose and perceived it not: I looked, and there, was no form before my eyes: but I only heard a breath and a voice, saying,