And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people ¹  to myself.”

When they heard these things, they became furious ¹  and ground their teeth ²  at him.

Then, after conferring with his council, ¹  Festus ²  replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; ³  to Caesar ⁴  you will go!” ⁵ 

For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ¹ 

What then? If some did not believe, does their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God?

For I can testify that they are zealous for God, ¹  but their zeal is not in line with the truth. ² 

So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near,

so that ¹  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

From James, ¹  a slave ²  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ³  Greetings!

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ¹  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ²  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ¹  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ²  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

Haman then related to his wife Zeresh and to all his friends everything that had happened to him. These wise men, ¹  along with his wife Zeresh, said to him, “If indeed this Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is Jewish, ²  you will not prevail against him. No, you will surely fall before him!”

Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ¹  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ²  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

This was to take place on a certain day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus – namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).

O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, ¹  what I have heard from the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to you.

In the past he said to them, ¹  “This is where security can be found. Provide security for the one who is exhausted! This is where rest can be found.” ²  But they refused to listen.

Your plunder ¹  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ²  they swarm over it like locusts! ³ 

Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. ¹ 

Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the foreigners, ¹  Libya, and the people ²  of the covenant land ³  will die by the sword along with them.