As for peres ¹  – your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian ¹  change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? ² 

They were unable to observe it at the regular ¹  time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem.

Then those men came by collusion to the king and ¹  said to him, ²  “Recall, ³  O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no edict or decree that the king issues can be changed.”