So the royal scribes ¹  were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps ²  and governors who were in every province and to the officials of every people, province by province according to its script and people by people according to its language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all the rest of Israel lived in their cities.When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites ¹  were settled in their cities, ² 

“‘On the first day of each month ¹  you must offer as a burnt offering to the Lord two young bulls, one ram, and seven unblemished lambs a year old,

In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, ¹  in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, ²  along with the rest of their associates, ³  the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed ⁴  the Levites who were at least twenty years old ⁵  to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple.

You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness. In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. ¹  No one can hold her back when she is in heat. None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her. At mating time she is easy to find. ² 

You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ¹  Let them take their stand – the ones who see omens in the sky, who gaze at the stars, who make monthly predictions – let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you! ² 

“Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ¹  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

“The Lord who rules over all says, ‘The fast of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth ¹  months will become joyful and happy, pleasant feasts for the house of Judah, so love truth and peace.’

¹ Nahash ²  the Ammonite marched ³  against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh Gilead said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.”

On the second day of the month the family leaders ¹  met with ²  Ezra the scribe, together with all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to consider the words of the law.

But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, and rested on the fifteenth, making it a day for banqueting and happiness.

They have committed treason ¹  against the Lord, because they bore illegitimate children. Soon ²  the new moon festival will devour them and their fields.

with the harvest produced by the daylight ¹  and by ²  the moonlight; ³ 

The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

“Are you acquainted with the way ¹  the mountain goats ²  give birth? Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?

But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”

And one male goat ¹  must be offered to the Lord as a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

Since considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous ¹  because the fast ²  was already over, ³  Paul advised them, ⁴ 

“Also in the time when you rejoice, such as ¹  on your appointed festivals or ²  at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may ³  become ⁴  a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”

all the people gathered together ¹  in the plaza which was in front of the Water Gate. They asked ²  Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had commanded Israel.