Esther was still not divulging her lineage or her people, ¹  just as Mordecai had instructed her. ²  Esther continued to do whatever Mordecai said, just as she had done when he was raising her.

When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she met with his approval. ¹  The king extended to Esther the gold scepter that was in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.

Then Esther again spoke with the king, falling at his feet. She wept and begged him for mercy, that he might nullify the evil of Haman the Agagite which he had intended against the Jews. ¹ 

Even the birds find a home there, and the swallow ¹  builds a nest, where she can protect her young ²  near your altars, O Lord who rules over all, my king and my God.

“I will rise up against them,” says the Lord who commands armies. “I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people, ¹  including the offspring she produces,” ²  says the Lord.

who commissions ¹  Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd ²  to carry out all my wishes ³  and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” ⁴ 

“Indeed, the Lord will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ¹  like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

In spite of all this, ¹  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ²  says the Lord.

Therefore, the Lord says, “Ask the people of other nations whether they have heard of anything like this. Israel should have been like a virgin. But she has done something utterly revolting!

Oh, how shattered Moab will be! Oh, how her people will wail! Oh, how she will turn away ¹  in shame! Moab will become an object of ridicule, a terrifying sight to all the nations that surround her.”

“Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. ¹  Shoot ²  all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! ³  For she has sinned against the Lord.

Come from far away and attack Babylonia! ¹  Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! ²  Destroy her completely! ³  Do not leave anyone alive! ⁴ 

Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. ¹  So they have all gone mad. ² 

The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. ¹ 

ד (Dalet) The roads to Zion ¹  mourn ²  because no one ³  travels to the festivals. ⁴  All her city gates ⁵  are deserted; ⁶  her priests groan. ⁷  Her virgins grieve; ⁸  she is in bitter anguish! ⁹ 

י (Yod) An enemy grabbed ¹  all her valuables. ²  Indeed she watched in horror ³  as Gentiles ⁴  invaded her holy temple ⁵  – those whom you ⁶  had commanded: “They must not enter ⁷  your assembly place.” ⁸ 

Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations ¹  and the countries around her. ²  Indeed, they ³  have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.

“‘See here – this was the iniquity ¹  of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help ²  the poor and needy.

“Her sister Oholibah watched this, ¹  but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister.

“Son of man, because Tyre ¹  has said about Jerusalem, ²  ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, ³  now that she ⁴  has been destroyed,’