When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “The Lord is the true God! ¹  The Lord is the true God!”

They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, ¹  and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry. ² 

if my people, who belong to me, ¹  humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, ²  and repudiate their sinful practices, ³  then I will respond ⁴  from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. ⁵ 

So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day. ¹  At that same time Libnah also rebelled and freed themselves from Judah’s control ²  because Jehoram ³  rejected the Lord God of his ancestors.

They assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves. Then they went in to purify the Lord’s temple, just as the king had ordered, in accordance with the word ¹  of the Lord.

They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt sacrifices to the Lord’s temple.

Because many in the assembly had not consecrated themselves, the Levites slaughtered ¹  the Passover lambs of all who were ceremonially unclean and could not consecrate their sacrifice to the Lord. ² 

King Hezekiah of Judah supplied 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep ¹  for the assembly, while the officials supplied them ²  with 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. Many priests consecrated themselves.

But then Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem humbled themselves and abandoned their pride, and the Lord was not angry with them for the rest of Hezekiah’s reign. ¹ 

The Israelites who were returning from the exile ate it, along with all those who had joined them ¹  in separating themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel.

even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹  blasphemies.

A copy of the edict was to be presented as law throughout each and every province and made known to all peoples, so that the Jews might be prepared on that ¹  day to avenge themselves from their enemies.

to establish these days of Purim in their proper times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, and just as they had established both for themselves and their descendants, matters pertaining to fasting and lamentation.

For the music director; according to the machalath style; ²  a well-written song ³  by David. Fools say to themselves, ⁴  “There is no God.” ⁵  They sin and commit evil deeds; ⁶  none of them does what is right. ⁷ 

If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth, and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls.

so they themselves can go into the crevices of the rocky cliffs and the openings under the rocky overhangs, ¹  trying to escape the dreadful judgment of the Lord ²  and his royal splendor, when he rises up to terrify the earth. ³ 

The look on their faces ¹  testifies to their guilt; ²  like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ³  Too bad for them! ⁴  For they bring disaster on themselves.

Look, they are like straw, which the fire burns up; they cannot rescue themselves from the heat ¹  of the flames. There are no coals to warm them, no firelight to enjoy. ² 

The people who do this will be blessed, ¹  the people who commit themselves to obedience, ²  who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, who refrain from doing anything that is wrong. ³ 

“Do so because my people have committed a double wrong: they have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, ¹  and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”