1 The king passed that night without sleep, and so he ordered the histories and chronicles of former times to be brought to him. And when they were reading them before him,
2 they came to that place where it had been written, how Mordecai had reported the treachery of Bigthan and Teresh the eunuchs, who desired to cut the throat of king Artaxerxes.
3 When the king had heard this, he said, “What honor and reward has Mordecai been given for this fidelity?” His servants and ministers said to him, “He has received no compensation at all.”
4 And immediately the king said, “Who is in the atrium?” For, you see, Haman was entering the inner atrium of the king’s house to suggest to the king that he should order Mordecai to be hanged on the gallows, which had been prepared for him.
5 The servants answered, “Haman is standing in the atrium.” And the king said, “Let him enter.”
6 And when he had entered, he said to him, “What ought to be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” But Haman, thinking in his heart and supposing that the king would honor no one else but himself,
7 answered, “The man whom the king wishes to honor,
8 ought to be clothed with the king’s apparel, and be set upon the horse that the king rides, and receive the royal crown upon his head.
9 And let the first of the king’s rulers and sovereigns hold his horse, and, as they advance through the street of the city, proclaim before him and say, ‘Thus shall he be honored, whom the king decides to honor.’ “
10 And the king said to him, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, and do as you have said to Mordecai the Jew, who sits in front of the gate of the palace. Be careful not to omit any of those things which you have mentioned.”
11 And so Haman took the robe and the horse, and arraying Mordecai in the street of the city, and setting him on the horse, he went before him and cried out, “He is worthy of this honor, whom the king has decided to honor.”
12 And Mordecai returned to the palace door. And Haman hurried to go to his house, mourning and hiding his head.
13 And he explained to Zeresh his wife and to his friends all that had happened to him. And the wise men, whom he held in counsel, and his wife, answered him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is from the offspring of the Jews, you will not be able to withstand him, but you will fall in his sight.”
14 As they were still speaking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and compelled him to go quickly to the feast, which the queen had prepared.
1 And so the king and Haman entered to drink with the queen.
2 And the king said to her again on the second day, after he was warmed with wine, “What is your request, Esther, so that it may be given to you? And what do you want done? Even if you ask for half of my kingdom, you will obtain it.”
3 She answered him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it pleases you, spare my soul, I ask you, and spare my people, I beg you.
4 For I and my people have been handed over to be crushed, to be slain, and to perish. And if we were only being sold as servants and slaves, the evil might be tolerable, and I would have mourned in silence. But now our enemy is one whose cruelty overflows upon the king.”
5 And king Artaxerxes answered and said, “Who is this, and of what power, that he would dare to do these things?”
6 And Esther said, “This is our most wicked enemy and foe: Haman!” Hearing this, Haman was suddenly dumbfounded, unable to bear the faces of the king and the queen.
7 But the king, being angry, rose up and, from the place of the feast, entered into the arboretum of the garden. Haman likewise rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his soul, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.
8 When the king returned from the arboretum of the garden and entered into the place of the feast, he found Haman collapsed on the couch on which Esther lay, and he said, “And now he wishes to oppress the queen, in my presence, in my house!” The word had not yet gone out of the king’s mouth, and immediately they covered his face.
9 And Harbona, one of the eunuchs who stood in ministry to the king, said, “Behold the wood, which he had prepared for Mordecai, who spoke up on behalf of the king, stands in Haman’s house, having a height of fifty cubits.” The king said to him, “Hang him from it.”
10 And so Haman was hanged on the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger was quieted.
1 On that day king, Artaxerxes gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to queen Esther, and Mordecai entered before the king. For Esther had confessed to him that he was her paternal uncle.
2 And the king took the ring, which he had ordered to be taken from Haman, and he handed it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai over her house.
3 Not content with these things, she threw herself down at the king’s feet and wept, and, speaking to him, pleaded that he would give orders that the malice of Haman the Agagite, and his most wicked schemes, which he had contrived against the Jews, would be made ineffective.
4 But he, as was the custom, extended the golden scepter with his hand, which was the sign of clemency, and she rose up and stood before him.
5 And she said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his eyes, and my request is not seen to be disagreeable to him, I beg you that the former letters of Haman, the traitor and enemy of the Jews, by which he instructed them to be destroyed in all the king’s provinces, may be corrected by new letters.
6 For how will I be able to endure the murder and execution of my people?”
7 And king Artaxerxes answered Esther the queen and Mordecai the Jew, “I have granted Haman’s house to Esther, and I have ordered him to be fastened to a cross, because he dared to lay hands on the Jews.
8 Therefore, write to the Jews, just as it pleases you, in the king’s name, sealing the letters with my ring.” For this was the custom, that letters which were sent in the king’s name and were sealed with his ring, no one would dare to contradict.
9 Then the scribes and copyists were brought in, (now it was the time of the third month which is called Sivan,) on the twenty-third day of the month, and letters were written, as Mordecai wanted, to the Jews, and to the governors, and procurators, and judges, who presided over the one hundred twenty-seven provinces, from India all the way to Ethiopia: to one province and another, to one people and another, in accordance with their languages and letters, and to the Jews, exactly as they were able to read and hear.
10 And these letters, which were sent in the king’s name, had been signed with his ring, and were sent by swift couriers who were to rush in every direction, through all the provinces, so as to prevent the former letters with new messages.
11 The king commanded them to bring together the Jews throughout each city, and to instruct them to join together, so as to make a stand for their lives, and to execute and destroy all their enemies, with their wives and children and their entire houses, and to plunder their spoil.
12 And one day of retribution was established throughout all the provinces, namely, the thirteenth of the twelfth month Adar.
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1 In the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:
2 The Lord has become angry over the resentful anger of your fathers.
3 And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, says the Lord of hosts.
4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn from your evil ways and from your wicked thoughts. But they did not heed, and neither did they pay attention to me, says the Lord.
5 Your fathers, where are they? And will the prophets live unceasingly?
6 Yet truly my words and my lawfulness, which I entrusted to my servants the prophets, were indeed comprehended by your fathers, and so they were converted, and they said: Just as the Lord of hosts decided to do to us, according to our ways and according to our inventions, so has he done to us.
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is called Shevat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:
8 I saw by night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees, which were in the chasm. And behind him were horses: red, speckled, and white.
9 And I said, “What are these, my lord?” And the angel, who was speaking with me, said to me, “I will reveal to you what these are.”
10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are they, whom the Lord has sent in order to walk through the earth.”
11 And those who stood among the myrtle trees answered the angel of the Lord, and they said, “We have walked through the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and is at rest.”
12 And the angel of the Lord answered and said, “Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry? This is now the seventieth year.”
13 And the Lord answered the angel, who had been speaking with me, good words, consoling words.
14 And the angel, who was speaking with me, said to me: Cry out, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have been zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great zeal.
15 And, with a great anger, I am angry with the wealthy nations. Though I had been angry a little, truly they advanced further in evil.
16 Because of this, thus says the Lord: I will be turned back, towards Jerusalem, with mercies; and my house will be built upon this, says the Lord of hosts. And the building line will be extended over Jerusalem.
17 Until then, cry out saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Until then, my cities will flow with good things, and, until then, the Lord will comfort Zion, and, until then, he will single out Jerusalem.
18 And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw. And behold: four horns.
19 And I said to the angel, who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns that have winnowed Judah and Israel and Jerusalem.”
20 And the Lord showed me four workmen.
21 And I said, “What have these come to do?” He spoke, saying, “These are the horns that have winnowed Judah, through every single man, and none of them lifted up his head. And these have come to frighten them away, so as to cast down the horns of the Gentiles, which have lifted up a horn over the land of Judah, so as to scatter it.”
7 The just shall be in everlasting remembrance: he shall not hear the evil hearing. His heart is ready to hope in the Lord:
8 His heart is strengthened, he shall not be moved until he look over his enemies.
9 He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever and ever: his horn shall be exalted in glory.
10 The wicked shall see, and shall be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, to all the saints who are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ,
4 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy and immaculate in his sight, in charity.
5 He has predestined us to adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ, in himself, according to the purpose of his will,
6 for the praise of the glory of his grace, with which he has gifted us in his beloved Son.
7 In him, we have redemption through his blood: the remission of sins in accord with the riches of his grace,
8 which is superabundant in us, with all wisdom and prudence.
9 So does he make known to us the mystery of his will, which he has set forth in Christ, in a manner well-pleasing to him,
10 in the dispensation of the fullness of time, so as to renew in Christ everything that exists through him in heaven and on earth.
11 In him, we too are called to our portion, having been predestined in accord with the plan of the One who accomplishes all things by the counsel of his will.
12 So may we be, to the praise of his glory, we who have hoped beforehand in Christ.
13 In him, you also, after you heard and believed the Word of truth, which is the Gospel of your salvation, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the Promise.
14 He is the pledge of our inheritance, unto the acquisition of redemption, to the praise of his glory.
15 Because of this, and hearing of your faith that is in the Lord Jesus, and of your love toward all the saints,
16 I have not ceased giving thanks for you, calling you to mind in my prayers,
17 so that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give a spirit of wisdom and of revelation to you, in knowledge of him.
18 May the eyes of your heart be illuminated, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and the wealth of the glory of his inheritance with the saints,
19 and the preeminent magnitude of his virtue toward us, toward we who believe in accord with the work of his powerful virtue,
20 which he wrought in Christ, raising him from the dead and establishing him at his right hand in the heavens,
21 above every principality and power and virtue and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age, but even in the future age.
22 And he has subjected all things under his feet, and he has made him the head over the entire Church,
23 which is his body and which is the fullness of him who accomplishes everything in everyone.
