The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, ¹  and the guards ²  to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of ³  Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. ⁴  The king ⁵  burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces ⁶  of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁷ 

The gatekeepers were posted on all four sides – east, west, north, and south.

These were the divisions of the gatekeepers who were descendants of Korah and Merari.

From the singers: Eliashib. From the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.

Look! Israel’s protector ¹  does not sleep or slumber!

The leaders will not be able to run away and hide. ¹  The shepherds of the flocks will not be able to escape.

The seacoast ¹  will be used as pasture lands ²  by the shepherds and as pens for their flocks.

and all who heard it were astonished ¹  at what the shepherds said.

But he is under guardians ¹  and managers until the date set by his ²  father.

So there were quarrels ¹  between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. ²  (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.) ³ 

David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard ¹  from now on.” ² 

it was found written that Mordecai had disclosed that Bigthana ¹  and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had plotted to assassinate ²  King Ahasuerus.

If ¹  I have sinned – what have I done to you, ²  O watcher of men? ³  Why have you set me as your target? ⁴  Have I become a burden to you? ⁵ 

My vineyard, ¹  which belongs to me, ²  is at my disposal alone. ³  The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon, and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.

I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

(Now Judas ¹  said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, ²  he used to steal what was put into it.) ³ 

“We found the jail locked securely and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, ¹  we found no one inside.”

They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the silver that had been brought to God’s temple. The Levites who guarded the door had collected it from the people of ¹  Manasseh and Ephraim and from all who were left in Israel, as well as from all the people of ²  Judah and Benjamin and the residents of ³  Jerusalem.

When it became the turn of Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai (who had raised her as if she were his own daughter ¹ ) to go to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who was overseer of the women, had recommended. Yet Esther met with the approval of all who saw her.

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, my sheep have become prey and have become food for all the wild beasts. There was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my flock, but fed themselves and did not feed my sheep,