Mordecai ¹  wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. He then sent letters by couriers on horses, who rode royal horses that were very swift.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ¹ 

Then let this clothing and this horse be given to one of the king’s noble officials. Let him ¹  then clothe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him lead him about through the plaza of the city on the horse, calling ²  before him, ‘So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!’”

therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’

Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath ¹  (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), ²  the Jewish leaders ³  asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs ⁴  broken ⁵  and the bodies taken down. ⁶ 

So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ¹  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ²  especially when my husband is old too?” ³ 

So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary. ¹ 

Solomon built the terrace as soon as Pharaoh’s daughter moved up from the city of David ¹  to the palace Solomon built for her. ² 

He will retain one tribe, for my servant David’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

He was so wicked he worshiped the disgusting idols, ¹  just like the Amorites ²  whom the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.)

The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign and all his accomplishments, including how he built a pool and conduit to bring ¹  water into the city, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ² 

everyone who has determined to follow God, ¹  the Lord God of his ancestors, even if he is not ceremonially clean according to the standards of the temple.” ² 

This is your fate, the destiny to which I have appointed you, because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods.

I am determined to do so because the people of Israel and Judah have made me angry with all their wickedness – they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, and especially the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹  have done this wickedness. ² 

Say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, ¹  and all the house of Israel within it.’ ² 

At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²  The king was watching the back ³  of the hand that was writing.

The arrogance of Israel testifies against it; Israel and Ephraim will be overthrown ¹  because ²  of their iniquity. Even Judah will be brought down ³  with them.

“I will destroy people and animals; I will destroy the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. (The idolatrous images of these creatures will be destroyed along with evil people.) ¹  I will remove ²  humanity from the face of the earth,” says the Lord.

“Be ¹  careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. ²  Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

The ¹  herdsmen ran off, went into the town, ²  and told everything that had happened to the demon-possessed men.