Hezekiah said, &#8220;Now you have consecrated yourselves<n id="1" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.&#8221; So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and whoever desired to do so<n id="3" /> brought burnt sacrifices.p>

which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words:<n id="1" /> &#8216;The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents!<n id="2" /> With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness.

When those days<n id="1" /> were completed, the king then provided a seven-day<n id="2" /> banquet for all the people who were present<n id="3" /> in Susa the citadel, for those of highest standing to the most lowly.<n id="4" /> It was held in the court located in the garden of the royal palace.

<p class="bodytext">At the end of the twelve months that were required for the women,<n id="1" /> when the turn of each young woman arrived to go to King Ahasuerus &#8211; for in this way they had to fulfill their time of cosmetic treatment: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfume and various ointments used by women &#8211;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now Haman went forth that day pleased and very much encouraged.<n id="1" /> But when Haman saw Mordecai at the king&#8217;s gate, and he did not rise nor tremble in his presence,<n id="2" /> Haman was filled with rage toward Mordecai.

<p class="poetry">This is the unfortunate fact<n id="1" /> about everything that happens on earth:<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the same fate awaits<n id="3" /> everyone.p> <p class="poetry">In addition to this, the hearts of all people<n id="4" /> are full of evil,p> <p class="poetry">and there is folly in their hearts during their lives &#8211; then they die.<n id="5" />p>

<t /><p class="sosspeaker"><b><i>The Beloved about Her Lover:i>b>p> <p class="poetry">I was asleep, but my mind<n id="1" /> was dreaming.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Listen!<n id="3" /> My lover<n id="4" /> is knocking<n id="5" /> at the door!<n id="6" />p> <p class="sosspeaker"><b><i>The Lover to His Beloved:i>b>p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Open<n id="7" /> for me, my sister, my darling,p> <p class="poetry">my dove, my flawless one!p> <p class="poetry">My head is drenched with dew,p> <p class="poetry">my hair with the dampness of the night.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s sword is dripping with blood,p> <p class="poetry">it is covered<n id="1" /> with fat;p> <p class="poetry">it drips<n id="2" /> with the blood of young rams and goatsp> <p class="poetry">and is covered<n id="3" /> with the fat of rams&#8217; kidneys.p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> is holding a sacrifice<n id="4" /> in Bozrah,<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">a bloody<n id="6" /> slaughter in the land of Edom.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Speak kindly to<n id="1" /> Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> and tell herp> <p class="poetry">that her time of warfare is over,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">that her punishment is completed.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> has made her pay double<n id="5" /> for all her sins.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">Never again will one of her infants live just a few days<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">or an old man die before his time.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">anyone who fails to reach<n id="4" /> the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.p>

<p class="poetry">I am as full of anger as you are, <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I am tired of trying to hold it in.&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> answered,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Vent it, then,<n id="3" /> on the children who play in the streetp> <p class="poetry">and on the young men who are gathered together.p> <p class="poetry">Husbands and wives are to be included,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.p>

Then<n id="1" /> tell them, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor.<n id="2" /> I will also fill the kings from David&#8217;s dynasty,<n id="3" /> the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor.<n id="4" />

I will do so because these people<n id="1" /> have rejected me and have defiled<n id="2" /> this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors<n id="3" /> nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation<n id="1" /> for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon<n id="2" /> an everlasting ruin.<n id="3" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;For the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule<n id="1" /> are over will I again take up consideration for you.<n id="2" /> Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore<n id="3" /> you to your homeland.<n id="4" />

&#8216;The defenders of the city will go out and fight with the Babylonians.<n id="1" /> But they will only fill those houses and buildings with the dead bodies of the people that I will kill in my anger and my wrath.<n id="2" /> That will happen because I have decided to turn my back on<n id="3" /> this city on account of the wicked things they have done.<n id="4" />

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one<n id="1" /> that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel.<n id="2" /> Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Sharpen<n id="1" /> your arrows!p> <p class="poetry">Fill your quivers!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> will arouse a spirit of hostility in<n id="3" /> the kings of Media.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">For he intends to destroy Babylonia.p> <p class="poetry">For that is how the <sc>Lordsc> will get his revenge &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians&#8217; destruction of his temple.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">He said to me, &#8220;Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.&#8221; So I ate it,<n id="1" /> and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.p>

Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them.