<p class="bodytext">After this Manasseh<n id="1" /> built up the outer wall of the City of David<n id="2" /> on the west side of the Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate and all around the terrace; he made it much higher. He placed army officers in all the fortified cities in Judah.p>

And the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she met with his loving approval<n id="1" /> more than all the other young women.<n id="2" /> So he placed the royal high turban on her head and appointed her queen<n id="3" /> in place of Vashti.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Some time later<n id="1" /> King Ahasuerus promoted<n id="2" /> Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, exalting him and setting his position<n id="3" /> above that of all the officials who were with him.

<p class="poetry">Certainly the <sc>Lordsc> will console Zion;p> <p class="poetry">he will console all her ruins.p> <p class="poetry">He will make her wilderness like Eden,p> <p class="poetry">her desert like the Garden of the <sc>Lordsc>.p> <p class="poetry">Happiness and joy will be restored to<n id="1" /> her,p> <p class="poetry">thanksgiving and the sound of music.p>

His intention<n id="1" /> will be to come with the strength of his entire kingdom, and he will form alliances.<n id="2" /> He will give the king of the south<n id="3" /> a daughter<n id="4" /> in marriage in order to destroy the kingdom, but it will not turn out to his advantage.

He and all his men<n id="1" /> went up on Mount Zalmon. He<n id="2" /> took an ax<n id="3" /> in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it<n id="4" /> on his shoulder and said to his men, &#8220;Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!&#8221;<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me &#8211; how he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether.<n id="1" /> During peacetime he struck them down like he would in battle;<n id="2" /> when he shed their blood as if in battle, he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet.<n id="3" />

King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, &#8220;I have violated our treaty.<n id="1" /> If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.&#8221;<n id="2" /> So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents<n id="3" /> of silver and thirty talents of gold.