Study Desk

In the days of Eliashib, Jehoiada, Jehohanan, and Jaddua the Levites were recorded as heads of the families. So these were the priests during the reign of Darius the Persian.

So the two choirs stood in the house of God, and I and half of the prefects with me;

So all of Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily food portions of the singers and gatekeepers. And they set apart that which was for the Levites, and the Levites set apart that which was for the descendants of Aaron.

So it happened when they heard the law that they separated all of the foreign people from Israel.

So I came to Jerusalem. And I came to learn of the wrong that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by making him a room in the courtyard of the house of God.

And then I came to learn that the food of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, the doers of the work, had gone back each to his field.

So I quarreled with the prefects, and I said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered them and set them at their station.

So all of Judah brought the tithe of grain, new wine, and olive oil into the storehouses.

So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath?

So when it became dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and said that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my young men over the gates to prevent any goods being brought in on the day of the Sabbath.

So the merchants and the sellers of merchandise spent the night outside of Jerusalem once or twice.

So I quarreled with them and cursed them and beat some of their men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath by God: "Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

So I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established responsibilities for the priests and Levites, each in his own work,

If it pleases the king, let a royal edict go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media so that it will not be altered, that Vashti cannot come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to her neighbor who is better than she.

And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won his favor and loyalty more than all the virgins, so he put a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

And the matter was investigated and found to be so; and the two of them were hanged on the gallows, and it was written in the scroll of the events of the days before the presence of the king.

And all of the king's servants who were at the gate of the king were kneeling and bowing down to Haman; for so the king had commanded concerning him, but Mordecai did not kneel and bow down.

So the king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

And Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might remove his sackcloth—but he did not accept them.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the public square of the city, which was in front of the gate of the king,