The king replied, “Find Haman quickly so that we can do as Esther requests.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

The king then removed his signet ring (the very one he had taken back from Haman) and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther designated Mordecai to be in charge of Haman’s estate.

to have them observe the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the month of Adar each year

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and he afflicted Job with a malignant ulcer from the sole of his feet to the top of his head.

So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job.

After this Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

I have asked the Lord for one thing – this is what I desire! I want to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, so I can gaze at the splendor of the Lord and contemplate in his temple.

Written by David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, causing the king to send him away. I will praise the Lord at all times; my mouth will continually praise him.

A psalm of Asaph. O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins.

I thought to myself, “God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed.

But better than both is the one who has not been born and has not seen the evil things that are done on earth.

However, a poor but wise man lived in the city, and he could have delivered the city by his wisdom, but no one listened to that poor man.

Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: Fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

The Beloved to the Maidens: I adjure you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: Do not awaken or arouse love until it pleases!

The Lover to His Beloved: O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountain crags, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

The Beloved to the Maidens:I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

The Beloved to the Maidens: O maidens of Jerusalem, I command you – If you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him that I am lovesick!

At that time men will throw their silver and gold idols, which they made for themselves to worship, into the caves where rodents and bats live,

At that time the sovereign master will wash the excrement from Zion’s women, he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, as he comes to judge and to bring devastation.

Now I will inform you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there.