5And the king hid his face: and the king cried with a loud voice, My son Abessalom! Abessalom my son!
36I am this day eighty years old: can I then distinguish between good and evil? Can thy servant taste any longer what I eat or drink? can I any longer hear the voice of singing men or singing women? and wherefore shall thy servant any longer be a burden to my lord the king?
38Let, I pray thee, thy servant remain, and I will die in my city, by the tomb of my father and of my mother. And, behold, thy servant Chamaam shall go over with my lord the king; and do thou to him as it seems good in thine eyes.
23Every creeping thing from among the birds, which has four feet, is an abomination to you.
30the ferret, and the chameleon, and the evet, and the newt, and the mole.
42And every animal that creeps on its belly, and every one that goes on four feet continually, which abounds with feet among all the reptiles creeping upon the earth—ye shall not eat it, for it is an abomination to you.
31And his brethren and his father’s house went down, and they took him; and they went up and buried him between Saraa and Esthaol in the sepulchre of his father Manoë; and he judged Israel twenty years.
7For he which is Lord over all shall fear no man’s person, neither shall he stand in awe of any man’s greatness: for he hath made the small and great, and careth for all alike.
17For the very true beginning of her is the desire of discipline; and the care of discipline is love;
21And I will betroth thee to myself for ever; yea, I will betroth thee to myself in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in tender compassions;
29Yet did I see him and Apame the king’s concubine, the daughter of the admirable Bartacus, sitting at the right hand of the king,
34O ye men, are not women strong? great is the earth, high is the heaven, swift is the sun in his course, for he compasseth the heavens round about, and fetcheth his course again to his own place in one day.
40Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth.
17Then answered the king’s officers, and said to Mattathias on this wise, Thou art a ruler, and an honourable and great man in this city, and strengthened with sons and brethren:
22We will not hearken to the king’s words, to go from our religion, either on the right hand, or the left.
54Phinees our father in being zealous and fervent obtained the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.
7And the king said to Esther, If I have given and freely granted thee all that was Aman’s, and hanged him on a gallows, because he laid his hands upon the Jews, what dost thou yet further seek?
12on one day in all the kingdom of Artaxerxes, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar.And the following is the copy of the letter of the orders.[The great king Artaxerxes sends greeting to the rulers of provinces in a hundred and twenty-seven satrapies, from India to Ethiopia, even to those who are faithful to our interests. Many who have been frequently honoured by the most abundant kindness of their benefactors have conceived ambitious designs, and not only endeavour to hurt our subjects, but moreover, not being able to bear prosperity, they also endeavour to plot against their own benefactors. And they not only would utterly abolish gratitude from among men, but also, elated by the boastings of men who are strangers to all that is good, they suppose that they shall escape the sin-hating vengeance of the ever-seeing God. And oftentimes evil exhortation has made partakers of the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and has involved in irremediable calamities, many of those who were appointed to offices of authority, who had been entrusted with the management of their friends' affairs; while men, by the false sophistry of an evil disposition, have deceived the simple candour of the ruling powers. And it is possible to see this, not so much from more ancient traditionary accounts, as it is immediately in your power to see it by examining what things have been wickedly perpetrated by the baseness of men unworthily holding power. And it is right to take heed with regard to the future, that we may maintain the government in undisturbed peace for all men, adopting needful changes, and ever judging those cases which come under our notice, with truly equitable decision.For whereas Aman, a Macedonian, the son of Amadathes, in reality an alien from the blood of the Persians, and differing widely from our mild course of government, having been hospitably entertained by us, obtained so large a share of our universal kindness, as to be called our father, and to continue the person next to the royal throne, reverenced of all; he, however, overcome by the pride of his station, endeavoured to deprive us of our dominion, and our life; having by various and subtle artifices demanded for destruction both Mardochæus our deliverer and perpetual benefactor, and Esther the blameless consort of our kingdom, with their whole nation. For by these methods he thought, having surprised us in a defenceless state, to transfer the dominion of the Persians to the Macedonians. But we find that the Jews, who have been consigned to destruction by the most abominable of men, are not malefactors, but living according to the justest laws, and being the sons of the living God, the most high and mighty, who maintains the kingdom, to us as well as to our forefathers, in the most excellent order.Ye will therefore do well in refusing to obey the letters sent by Aman the son of Amadathes, because he that has done these things, has been hanged with his whole family at the gates of Susa, Almighty God having swiftly returned to him a worthy recompence. We enjoin you then, having openly published a copy of this letter in every place, to give the Jews permission to use their own lawful customs, and to strengthen them, that on the thirteenth of the twelfth month Adar, on the self-same day, they may defend themselves against those who attacked them in a time of affliction. For in the place of the destruction of the chosen race, Almighty God has granted them this time of gladness.Do ye therefore also, among your notable feasts, keep a distinct day with all festivity, that both now and hereafter it may be a day of deliverance to us and those who are well disposed toward the Persians, but to those that plotted against us a memorial of destruction. And every city and province collectively, which shall not do accordingly, shall be consumed with vengeance by spear and fire: it shall be made not only inaccessible to men, but also most hateful to wild beasts and birds for ever.]
7And 59. 7 Rom. 3. 15-17. their feet run to wickedness, swift to shed blood; their thoughts also are thoughts 59. 7 Gr. from murders, but Alex. reads ὐφρόνων.of murder; destruction and misery are in their ways;
15And truth has been taken away, and they have turned aside their mind from understanding.And the Lord saw it, and it pleased him not that there was no judgment.
12Your mother is greatly ashamed; your mother that bore you for prosperity is confounded: she is the last of the nations, desolate,
21on the land, saith the Lord.Go up against it roughly, and against them that dwell on it: avenge, O sword, and destroy utterly, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I command thee.
26For her times are come: open ye her storehouses: search her as a cave, and utterly destroy her: let there be no remnant of her.
40O king, how long dost thou make trial of us, as of men bereft of reason? This is the third time that thou hast ordered their destruction. When the thing is to be done, thou changest thy mind, and recallest thy instructions.
47The king’s heart teemed with impious rage; and he rushed forth with the mass, along with the elephants. With feelings unsoftened, and eyes pitiless, he longed to gaze at the hard and wretched doom of the above-mentioned Jews.
49thought that they had come to the last moment of their lives, to the end of what they had tremblingly expected. They gave way, therefore, to lamentations and moans: they kissed each other: those nearest of kin to each other hung about one another’s necks: fathers about their sons, mothers their daughters: other women held their infants to their breasts, which drew what seemed their last milk.
6But this is worthy of honours, not of torments; hadst thou been capable of the higher feelings of men, and possessed the hope of salvation from God. Behold, now, being alien from God, thou makest war against those who are religious toward God.
16So that if thou think proper to torment us for not eating the unclean;—torment!
26Your fire is cold to us, your catapelts are painless, and your violence harmless.