There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, ¹  in addition to those who came to us from the nations ²  all around us.

Now there happened to be a Jewish man in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai. ¹  He was the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite,

Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. ¹ 

Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, ¹  and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”

So Daniel was brought in before the king. The king said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives of Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah?

“On the day of the Lord’s sacrificial meal, I will punish the princes ¹  and the king’s sons, and all who wear foreign styles of clothing. ² 

The ¹  chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death.

So they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story is told among the Jews to this day. ¹ 

Now ¹  they wanted to arrest him (but they feared the crowd), because they realized that he told this parable against them. So ²  they left him and went away. ³ 

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find anything.

Joseph of Arimathea, a highly regarded member of the council, ¹  who was himself looking forward to ²  the kingdom of God, ³  went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. ⁴ 

During the reign ¹  of Herod ²  king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah who belonged to ³  the priestly division of Abijah, ⁴  and he had a wife named Elizabeth, ⁵  who was a descendant of Aaron. ⁶ 

Now by chance ¹  a priest was going down that road, but ²  when he saw the injured man ³  he passed by ⁴  on the other side. ⁵ 

Then the Jewish leaders ¹  said to him, “This temple has been under construction ²  for forty-six years, ³  and are you going to raise it up in three days?”

The Jewish leaders ¹  replied, ²  “We are not going to stone you for a good deed ³  but for blasphemy, ⁴  because ⁵  you, a man, are claiming to be God.” ⁶ 

So the chief priests and the Pharisees ¹  called the council ²  together and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous signs.

Nevertheless, even among the rulers ¹  many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees ²  they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, ³  so that they would not be put out of ⁴  the synagogue. ⁵ 

Pilate asked, ¹  “What is truth?” ²  When he had said this he went back outside to the Jewish leaders ³  and announced, ⁴  “I find no basis for an accusation ⁵  against him.

Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, ¹  “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation ²  against him.”

Thus many of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem ¹  read this notice, ²  because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the notice was written in Aramaic, ³  Latin, and Greek.