Then Jesus said to those Judeans ¹  who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, ²  you are really ³  my disciples

The Judeans ¹  replied, ²  “Aren’t we correct in saying ³  that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?” ⁴ 

Now the Jewish religious leaders ¹  refused to believe ²  that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned ³  the parents of the man who had become able to see. ⁴ 

The Jewish leaders ¹  surrounded him and asked, ²  “How long will you keep us in suspense? ³  If you are the Christ, ⁴  tell us plainly.” ⁵ 

The disciples replied, ¹  “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders ²  were just now trying ³  to stone you to death! Are ⁴  you going there again?”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the people ¹  who had come with her weeping, he was intensely moved ²  in spirit and greatly distressed. ³ 

Thus Jesus no longer went ¹  around publicly ²  among the Judeans, ³  but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, ⁴  and stayed there with his disciples.

Now a large crowd of Judeans ¹  learned ²  that Jesus ³  was there, and so they came not only because of him ⁴  but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.

Pilate told them, ¹  “Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him ²  according to your own law!” ³  The Jewish leaders ⁴  replied, ⁵  “We cannot legally put anyone to death.” ⁶ 

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.

The Jewish leaders ¹  replied, ²  “We have a law, ³  and according to our law he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God!” ⁴ 

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.

When I was in Jerusalem, ¹  the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed ²  me about him, ³  asking for a sentence of condemnation ⁴  against him.

“Regarding all the things I have been accused of by the Jews, King Agrippa, ¹  I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

Now all the Jews know the way I lived ¹  from my youth, spending my life from the beginning among my own people ²  and in Jerusalem. ³ 

The king’s scribes were quickly ¹  summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. ²  They wrote out ³  everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia ⁴  – a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all – to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language.

Now ¹  let the king be aware that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and odious city. ²  They are completing its walls and repairing its foundations.

Written in it were the following words: “Among the nations it is rumored ¹  (and Geshem ²  has substantiated ³  this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors ⁴  you are going to become their king.

And after they had spoken to him day after day ¹  without his paying any attention to them, they informed Haman to see whether this attitude on Mordecai’s part would be permitted. ²  Furthermore, he had disclosed to them that he was a Jew. ³ 

Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ¹  there was considerable ²  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ³  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁴  of many.