And he put the carved Image of an Idol which he had made, in the house of God - Of which house, God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house here in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the tribes, I will put my name forever,

And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.

But he sent messengers to him, who asked him, "What do we have in common, King of Judah? I am not here today opposing you. I am fighting the dynasty that is fighting me, and God has ordered me to hurry. For your own good, stop interfering with God, who is with me, and he won't destroy you!"

And they will burn the house of God and break down the walls of Jerusalem, and burn all her palaces in fire, and all her precious vessels for destruction.

To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

Here is a partial inventory: Gold dishes: 30 Silver dishes: 1,000 Sacrificial knives: 29

Here is a list of descendants of the province of Judah who returned from the captivity, from those who had been exiled. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken them to Babylon. They came back to Jerusalem and Judah, each one to his town,

along with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. Here is the enumeration of: The Men of Israel:

Here is a list of returnees from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer who could not prove their ancestry and lineage from Israel:

they came to Zerubbabel [who was now governor] and to the heads of the fathers’ households and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God [and worship] just as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”

Here is a copy of the letter that Trans-Euphrates Governor Tattenai, Shethar-bozenai, and his colleagues the Trans-Euphrates Persians sent to King Darius.

Here is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest-scribe, a scholar in matters concerning the commandments of the LORD and concerning his statutes pertaining to Israel:

And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here;

Yahweh, God of Israel, you are righteous, for we have been left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this."

However, the people are numerous and it is the rainy season. We are unable to stand here outside. Furthermore, this business cannot be resolved in a day or two, for we have sinned greatly in this matter.

Here is a list of priestly descendants who were found to have married foreign women. From Jeshua's descendants: Jozadak's son and his brothers Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad when the city of my ancestors' burial site is ruined and her gates are consumed by fire?"

And saying to them, Ye seeing the evil which we are in it, how Jerusalem lay waste, and her gates were burnt with fire: come ye, and we will build the walls of Jerusalem, and we shall be no more a reproach.

Wherever you may be when the horn is sounded, come here to us; our God will be fighting for us.

My God placed it on my heart to gather the leaders, the officials, and the ordinary people so they could be enrolled on the basis of genealogy. I found the genealogical records of those who had formerly returned. Here is what I found written in that record:

They were coming with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. Here is the enumeration of: The Men of Israel:

Here is a list of returnees from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, who could not prove their ancestry and lineage from Israel:

Here we are today,
slaves in the land You gave our ancestors
so that they could enjoy its fruit and its goodness.
Here we are—slaves in it!

Here is a list of those who signed: Hacaliah's son Nehemiah the governor, Zedekiah,

To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on.

But when the servants gave her the king's order, Vashti the queen said she would not come: then the king was very angry, and his heart was burning with wrath.

What is to be done by law to Vashti the queen, because she has not done what King Ahasuerus, by his servants, gave her orders to do?

If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.

After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.

and, the maiden that is pleasing in the eyes of the king, let her be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing seemed good in the eyes of the king, and he did so.

And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women.

Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.

And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house, to know how Esther did, and what should become of her.

Now when the turn of every maiden was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that it had been done to her according to the law for the women twelve months (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit , six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors and with the things for the purifying of the women),

Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house.

In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.

Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her.

And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.

And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain nation living here and there in small groups among the people in all the divisions of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of any other nation, and they do not keep the king's laws: for this reason it is not right for the king to let them be.

So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not.

Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.

Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.

Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.

When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she found favor in his sight; and the king extended to her the golden scepter which was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.

Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.

Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king.

On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.

and in her coming in before the king, he said with the letter, 'Let his evil device that he devised against the Jews turn back upon his own head,' and they have hanged him and his sons on the tree,

to confirm these days of Purim, in their time appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had ordained concerning them: like as they upon their soul and upon their seed had confirmed the acts of the fasting and of her complaint.

But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

And thou shalt know that thy seed is numerous, and thine offspring as the herb of the earth.

It would weigh more than the sand on the seashore! Here's why I've talked so rashly:

They are disappointed, because they trusted; they came {here} and they are confounded.

Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.

Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a fixed day?

The earth, hath been given into the hand of a lawless one, The faces of her judges, he covereth, If not, then who is it?

"Come here now, all of you, and I won't find a wise person among you.

"For the same cause do my thoughts compel me to answer. And why? My mind is tossed here and there.

Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

He is not kind to the widow, and he has no pity for her child.

She cannot be gotten for the most fine gold, neither may the price of her be bought with any money.

No wedges of gold of Ophir, no precious Onyx stones, no Sapphire may be compared unto her.

There is nothing so worthy, or so excellent, as once to be named unto her: for perfect wisdom goeth far beyond them all.

The Topaz that cometh out of Ethiopia may in no wise be likened unto her: yea, no manner of apparel how pleasant and fair soever it be.

Destruction and death say, 'We have heard tell of her with our ears.'

But God seeth her way, and knoweth her place.

Then did he see her, then declared he her, prepared her and knew her.

Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

Oh that I had one to hear me! (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me); And that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!

Take care that you do not say, Wisdom is here; God may overcome him, but not man.

“Behold, I have opened my mouth [to begin my speech];
My tongue in my mouth is going to speak.

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season? Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train?

Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?

Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,

She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;

Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.

When she proudly spreads her wings,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.

Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?

On the cliff she dwelleth, and maketh her home, Upon the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.

From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.

Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

He will lie in wait in secret as the lion in her den: he will lie in wait to catch the poor one: he will catch the poor one in drawing him into his net

Save and help and rescue, Lord, for godly people cease to be,
For the faithful vanish from among the sons of men.

And, he, is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, he rejoiceth as a hero to run a race:

O go not far from me then, for trouble is hard at hand, and here is none to help me.

A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the strong oxen of Bashan.

Not a king, can be saved by greatness of force, nor, hero, deliver himself by greatness of strength:

My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

“Lord, let me know my [life’s] end
And [to appreciate] the extent of my days;
Let me know how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].

Let my prayer come to your ears, O Lord, and give attention to my cry, make an answer to my weeping: for my time here is short before you, and in a little time I will be gone, like all my fathers.