Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a particular people ¹  that is dispersed and spread among the inhabitants ²  throughout all the provinces of your kingdom whose laws differ from those of all other peoples. Furthermore, they do not observe the king’s laws. It is not appropriate for the king to provide a haven for them. ³ 

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 

For see what this very thing, this sadness ¹  as God intended, has produced in you: what eagerness, what defense of yourselves, ²  what indignation, ³  what alarm, what longing, what deep concern, ⁴  what punishment! ⁵  In everything you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

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 Joseph remembered ¹  the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see if our land is vulnerable!” ² 

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 

It will be for a sign on your hand and for frontlets ¹  on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” ² 

it is a chronic ¹  disease on the skin of his body, ²  so the priest is to pronounce him unclean. ³  The priest ⁴  must not merely quarantine him, for he is unclean. ⁵ 

“‘You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, ¹  so that ²  the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out.

and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt ¹  when they eat their holy offerings, ²  for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

You must not do any work. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations ¹  in all the places where you live.

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

You must celebrate it as a pilgrim festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations; ¹  you must celebrate it in the seventh month.

if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ¹  all my commandments and you break my covenant –

So you are to appoint Aaron and his sons, and they will be responsible for their priesthood; ¹  but the unauthorized person ²  who comes near must be put to death.”

It happened that some men ¹  who were ceremonially defiled ²  by the dead body of a man ³  could not keep ⁴  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or fortified cities,