<p class="poetry">Can food that is tasteless<n id="1" /> be eaten without salt?p> <p class="poetry">Or is there any taste in the white<n id="2" /> of an egg?p>

<p class="poetry">Fear and dread<n id="1" /> will fall<n id="2" /> on them;p> <p class="poetry">by the greatness<n id="3" /> of your arm they will be as still as stone<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">until<n id="5" /> your people pass by, O <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">until the people whom you have bought<n id="6" /> pass by.p>

But now please listen, your royal Majesty,<n id="1" /> and grant my plea for mercy.<n id="2" /> Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan, the royal secretary. If you do, I will die there.&#8221;<n id="3" />

I will certainly save you. You will not fall victim to violence.<n id="1" /> You will escape with your life<n id="2" /> because you trust in me. I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;This is because they have led my people astray saying, &#8220;All is well,&#8221;<n id="1" /> when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar,<n id="2" /> they coat it with whitewash.

Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones<n id="1" /> will fall and a violent wind will break out.<n id="2" />

I will break down the wall you coated with whitewash and knock it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed. When it falls you will be destroyed beneath it,<n id="1" /> and you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>.

I will vent my rage against the wall, and against those who coated it with whitewash. Then I will say to you, &#8220;The wall is no more and those who whitewashed it are no more &#8211;

Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash.<n id="1" /> They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, &#8216;This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says,&#8217; when the <sc>Lordsc> has not spoken.

&#8220;Give these instructions<n id="1" /> to the Israelites, and tell them: &#8216;When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance,<n id="2" /> the land of Canaan with its borders,

<t /><p class="bodytext">This is what<n id="1" /> Moses said to the assembly of Israel<n id="2" /> in the Transjordanian<n id="3" /> wastelands, the arid country opposite<n id="4" /> Suph,<n id="5" /> between<n id="6" /> Paran<n id="7" /> and Tophel,<n id="8" /> Laban,<n id="9" /> Hazeroth,<n id="10" /> and Di Zahab<n id="11" />

<p class="bodytext">The king then said to Haman, &#8220;Go quickly! Take the clothing and the horse, just as you have described, and do as you just indicated to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king&#8217;s gate. Don&#8217;t neglect<n id="1" /> a single thing of all that you have said.&#8221;p>

Perhaps then they will ask the <sc>Lordsc> for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing.<n id="1" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

They said to him, &#8220;Please grant our request<n id="1" /> and pray to the <sc>Lordsc> your God for all those of us who are still left alive here.<n id="2" /> For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before.<n id="3" />