1So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, 2and as they were drinking wine on that second day, the king again asked, Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be
1That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. 2The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from
13When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. 2Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen.
1When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled as one man in Jerusalem. 2Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar
1When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord , the God of Israel, 2they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and
1Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set to work to re
1King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. 2And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king had raised him, are they not written in the book of the anna
30Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel: This is what the Lord commands: 2When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said. 3When a young woman st
31The Lord said to Moses, 2Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people. 3So Moses said to the people, Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord 's venge
32The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock. 2So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, and said, 3Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer
34The Lord said to Moses, 2Command the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these boundaries: 3 'Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the bord
35On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, 2Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. And give them pasturelands around the towns. 3Then they
36The family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, who were from the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and the leaders, the heads of the Israelite families. 2They said, When the Lord commanded my
12At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people-everyone whose name is found written in th
11And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.) 2Now then, I tell you the truth: Three more kings will appear in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. When he has gained power
10In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. 2At that time I, Daniel, mourned
9In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- 2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophe
8In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. 3I looked up,
7In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. 2Daniel said: In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the
29 'On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets. 2As an aroma pleasing to the Lord , prepare a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year ol