The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem.

The king of Egypt prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a special tax of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

The exiles observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints.

The fifth time that Sanballat sent his assistant to me in this way, he had an open letter in his hand.

“You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea.

“But they – our ancestors – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled and did not obey your commandments.

When the priests and Levites had purified themselves, they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

I was very upset, and I threw all of Tobiah’s household possessions out of the storeroom.

Then I gave instructions that the storerooms should be purified, and I brought back the equipment of the temple of God, along with the grain offering and the incense.

So I registered a complaint with the leaders, asking “Why is the temple of God neglected?” Then I gathered them and reassigned them to their positions.

Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

But Haman restrained himself and went on to his home. He then sent for his friends to join him, along with his wife Zeresh.

So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.

When the king extended to Esther the gold scepter, she arose and stood before the king.

So the Jews committed themselves to continue what they had begun to do and to what Mordecai had written to them.

Then Satan answered the Lord, “Is it for nothing that Job fears God?

So the Lord said to Satan, “All right, he is in your power; only preserve his life.”

So these three men refused to answer Job further, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

With Job’s three friends he was also angry, because they could not find an answer, and so declared Job guilty.