י (Yod) The elders of Daughter Zion sit ¹  on the ground in silence. ²  They have thrown dirt on their heads; They have dressed in sackcloth. ³  Jerusalem’s young women ⁴  stare down at the ground. ⁵ 

The one who associates ¹  with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. ² 

The one who keeps the law ¹  is a discerning child, ²  but a companion of gluttons brings shame ³  to his parents. ⁴ 

On that day they will say ¹  to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion! Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic! ² 

So you too consider yourselves ¹  dead to sin, but ²  alive to God in Christ Jesus.

“You are to make a special curtain ¹  of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen; it is to be made ²  with cherubim, the work of an artistic designer.

and its five posts and their hooks. He overlaid their tops ¹  and their bands with gold, but their five bases were bronze. ² 

You are to put ¹  the gold altar for incense in front of the ark of the testimony and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.

The Lord is God and he has delivered us. ¹  Tie the offering ²  with ropes to the horns of the altar! ³ 

For this is what the sovereign master ¹  has told me: “Within exactly one year ²  all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end.

The people cry out, ¹  “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! ²  Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

Don’t prophesy at Bethel ¹  any longer, for a royal temple and palace are here!” ² 

Even if you were to soar high like an eagle, ¹  even if you ²  were to make your nest among the stars, I can bring you down even from there!” says the Lord.

Then Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his other two sons, “Do not ¹  dishevel the hair of your heads ²  and do not tear your garments, so that you do not die and so that wrath does not come on the whole congregation. Your brothers, all the house of Israel, are to mourn the burning which the Lord has caused, ³ 

But don’t you delay! Chase your enemies and catch them! ¹  Don’t allow them to retreat to ²  their cities, for the Lord your God is handing them over to you.” ³ 

How blessed ²  is the one ³  who does not follow ⁴  the advice ⁵  of the wicked, ⁶  or stand in the pathway ⁷  with sinners, or sit in the assembly ⁸  of scoffers! ⁹ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Set me like a cylinder seal ¹  over your heart, ²  like a signet ³  on your arm. ⁴  For love is as strong as death, ⁵  passion ⁶  is as unrelenting ⁷  as Sheol. Its flames burst forth, ⁸  it is a blazing flame. ⁹ 

Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea ¹  says this, O fortress of the sea: “I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women.” ² 

So this is what the Lord, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob: ¹  “Jacob will no longer be ashamed; their faces will no longer show their embarrassment. ²