These days were to be remembered and to be celebrated in every generation and in every family, every province, and every city. The Jews were not to fail to observe these days of Purim; the remembrance of them was not to cease among their descendants.

Again, ¹  I observed this on the earth: ²  the race is not always ³  won by the swiftest, the battle is not always won by the strongest; prosperity ⁴  does not always belong to those who are the wisest, wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning, nor does success ⁵  always come to those with the most knowledge – for time and chance may overcome ⁶  them all.

“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant ¹  than the nations around you, ²  you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even ³  carried out the regulations of the nations around you!

You implement the regulations of Omri, and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; ¹  you follow their policies. ²  Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, ³  the city’s ⁴  inhabitants will be taunted derisively, ⁵  and nations will mock all of you.” ⁶ 

But the Lord saw ¹  that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination ²  of the thoughts ³  of their minds ⁴  was only evil ⁵  all the time. ⁶ 

After Isaac ¹  had been there a long time, ²  Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed ³  Isaac caressing ⁴  his wife Rebekah.

Then he said, ‘Observe ¹  that all the male goats mating with ²  the flock are streaked, speckled, or spotted, for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.

¹ In those days, ²  when ³  Moses had grown up, he went out to his people ⁴  and observed ⁵  their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking ⁶  a Hebrew man, one of his own people. ⁷ 

The Lord said, “I have surely seen ¹  the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ² 

This day will become ¹  a memorial ²  for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival ³  to the Lord – you will celebrate it perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ⁴ 

So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very ¹  day I brought your regiments ²  out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ³ 

“‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, ¹  a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.

You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this very day, ¹  until you bring the offering of your God. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations ²  in all the places where you live.

“‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you. ¹  You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations. ² 

besides ¹  the Sabbaths of the Lord and all your gifts, votive offerings, and freewill offerings which you must give to the Lord.

So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho. ¹ 

and told them: “You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the Lord’s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you. ¹ 

Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed ¹  Israel along the way when Israel ²  came up from Egypt.

Jeroboam was a talented man; ¹  when Solomon saw that the young man was an accomplished worker, he made him the leader of the work crew from the tribe ²  of Joseph.

and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You ¹  have rebelled against the Lord ²  and have not obeyed the command the Lord your God gave you.