Study Desk

So their descendants went in and possessed the land:You subdued the Canaanites who inhabited the land before themand handed their kings and the surrounding peoples over to them,to do as they pleased with them.

So you handed them over to their enemies,who oppressed them.In their time of distress, they cried out to you,and you heard from heaven.In your abundant compassionyou gave them deliverers, who rescued themfrom the power of their enemies.

So now, our God—the great, mighty,and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant—do not view lightly all the hardships that have afflicted us,our kings and leaders,our priests and prophets,our ancestors and all your people,from the days of the Assyrian kings until today.

The two thanksgiving processions stood in the house of God. So did I and half of the officials accompanying me,

So in the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers. They also set aside daily portions for the Levites, and the Levites set aside daily portions for Aaron’s descendants.

so I could return to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah by providing him a room in the courts of God’s house.

At that time I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath. They were also bringing in stores of grain and loading them on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

Didn’t your ancestors do the same, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are rekindling his anger against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”

When shadows began to fall on the city gates of Jerusalem just before the Sabbath, I gave orders that the city gates be closed and not opened until after the Sabbath. I posted some of my men at the gates, so that no goods could enter during the Sabbath day.

Even one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. So I drove him away from me.

So I purified them from everything foreign and assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites.

“If it meets the king’s approval, he should personally issue a royal decree. Let it be recorded in the laws of Persia and Media, so that it cannot be revoked: Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus’s presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she.

The decree the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom, so all women will honor their husbands, from the greatest to the least.”

Let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom, so that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem at the fortress of Susa. Put them under the supervision of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, and give them the required beauty treatments.

The young woman pleased him and gained his favor so that he accelerated the process of the beauty treatments and the special diet that she received. He assigned seven hand-picked female servants to her from the palace and transferred her and her servants to the harem’s best quarters.

A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the peoples so that they might get ready for that day.

Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate.

Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people.

So Mordecai went and did everything Esther had commanded him.