<p class="bodytext">She wrote out orders,<n id="1" /> signed Ahab&#8217;s name to them,<n id="2" /> and sealed them with his seal. She then sent the orders<n id="3" /> to the leaders<n id="4" /> and to the nobles who lived in Naboth&#8217;s city.<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, wrote down what happened.<n id="1" />p> <p class="bodytext">Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was in charge of the records.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Ahab had seventy sons living in Samaria.<n id="1" /> So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the leading officials of Jezreel and to the guardians of Ahab&#8217;s dynasty. This is what the letters said,<n id="2" />

the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak,<n id="1" /> and the Sepharvites burned their sons in the fire as an offering to Adrammelech and Anammelech,<n id="2" /> the gods of Sepharvaim.

<t /><p class="bodytext">At that time Merodach-Baladan<n id="1" /> son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill.

and the clans of the scribes<n id="1" /> who lived in Jabez: the Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. These are the Kenites who descended<n id="2" /> from Hammath, the father of Beth-Rechab.<n id="3" />p>

Mordecai<n id="1" /> wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king&#8217;s signet ring. He then sent letters by couriers on horses, who rode royal horses that were very swift.p>

<p class="bodytext">Mordecai wrote these matters down and sent letters to all the Jews who were throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

Letters were sent<n id="1" /> to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the empire of Ahasuerus &#8211; words of true peace<n id="2" /> &#8211;

<t /><p class="poetry">Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">There is no end to the making<n id="2" /> of many books,p> <p class="poetry">and much study is exhausting to the body.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill and had recovered.

<p class="poetry">How can you say, &#8220;We are wise!p> <p class="poetry">We have the law of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8221;?p> <p class="poetry">The truth is,<n id="1" /> those who teach it<n id="2" /> have used their writingsp> <p class="poetry">to make it say what it does not really mean.<n id="3" />p>

He sent letters throughout all the royal provinces, to each province according to its own script and to each people according to its own language,<n id="1" /> that every man should be ruling his family<n id="2" /> and should be speaking the language of his own people.<n id="3" />p>

that the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all<n id="1" /> has a message for him.<n id="2" /> Tell him,<n id="3" /> &#8216;On your own initiative<n id="4" /> you sent a letter<n id="5" /> to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah<n id="6" /> and to all the other priests and to all the people in Jerusalem.<n id="7" /> In your letter you said to Zephaniah,<n id="8" />

Letters were sent by the runners to all the king&#8217;s provinces stating that<n id="1" /> they should destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, from youth to elderly, both women and children,<n id="2" /> on a particular day, namely the thirteenth day<n id="3" /> of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and to loot and plunder their possessions.