<p class="bodytext">King Ahasuerus replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, &#8220;Look, I have already given Haman&#8217;s estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he took hostile action<n id="1" /> against the Jews.

and suddenly<n id="1" /> a great wind<n id="2" /> swept across<n id="3" /> the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they died! And I &#8211; only I alone &#8211; escaped to tell you!&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="psasuper">For the music director; a well-written song<n id="2" /> by David. It was written when Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul: &#8220;David has arrived at the home of Ahimelech.&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Why do you boast about your evil plans,<n id="4" /> O powerful man?p> <p class="poetry">God&#8217;s loyal love protects me all day long!<n id="5" />p>

<t /><p class="psasuper">A song of ascents,<n id="2" /> by Solomon.p> <p class="poetry">If the <sc>Lordsc> does not build a house,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">then those who build it work in vain.p> <p class="poetry">If the <sc>Lordsc> does not guard a city,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">then the watchman stands guard in vain.p>

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="poetry">Be careful what you do<n id="2" /> when you go to the temple<n id="3" /> of God;p> <p class="poetry">draw near to listen<n id="4" /> rather than to offer a sacrifice<n id="5" /> like fools,<n id="6" />p> <p class="poetry">for they do not realize that they are doing wrong.p>

<p class="poetry">and they are afraid of heights and the dangers<n id="1" /> in the street;p> <p class="poetry">the almond blossoms<n id="2" /> grow white,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and the grasshopper<n id="4" /> drags itself along,<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">and the caper berry<n id="6" /> shrivels up<n id="7" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">because man goes to his eternal home,<n id="8" />p> <p class="poetry">and the mourners go about in the streets &#8211;p>

<p class="poetry">Scarcely<n id="1" /> had I passed them byp> <p class="poetry">when I found my beloved!p> <p class="poetry">I held onto him<n id="2" /> tightly and would not let him go<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">until I brought him to my mother&#8217;s house,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">to the bedroom chamber<n id="5" /> of the one who conceived me.p>

<p class="poetry">Surging waters cannot quench love;p> <p class="poetry">floodwaters<n id="1" /> cannot overflow it.p> <p class="poetry">If someone were to offer all his possessions<n id="2" /> to buy love,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">the offer<n id="4" /> would be utterly despised.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">many peoples will come and say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Come, let us go up to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s mountain,p> <p class="poetry">to the temple of the God of Jacob,p> <p class="poetry">so<n id="1" /> he can teach us his requirements,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and<n id="3" /> we can follow his standards.&#8221;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">For Zion will be the center for moral instruction;<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">the <sc>Lordsc> will issue edicts from Jerusalem.<n id="6" />p>

The <sc>Lordsc> will bring on you, your people, and your father&#8217;s family a time<n id="1" /> unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah &#8211; the king of Assyria!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">At that time<n id="1" /> those left in Israel, those who remain of the family<n id="2" /> of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them.<n id="3" /> Instead they will truly<n id="4" /> rely on the <sc>Lordsc>, the Holy One of Israel.<n id="5" />

<p class="poetry">So this is what the <sc>Lordsc>, the one who delivered Abraham, says to the family of Jacob:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Jacob will no longer be ashamed;p> <p class="poetry">their faces will no longer show their embarrassment.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief<n id="1" /> and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests,<n id="1" /> clothed in sackcloth, sent this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

One day,<n id="1" /> as he was worshiping<n id="2" /> in the temple of his god Nisroch,<n id="3" /> his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword.<n id="4" /> They ran away to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness.<n id="1" /> The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.&#8217;&#8221;

&#8216;Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors<n id="1" /> have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,&#8217; says the <sc>Lordsc>.

<t /><p class="poetry">Listen to this, O family of Jacob,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">you who are called by the name &#8216;Israel,&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">and are descended from Judah,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">who take oaths in the name of the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">and invoke<n id="3" /> the God of Israel &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">but not in an honest and just manner.<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">I will tell of the faithful acts of the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s praiseworthy deeds.p> <p class="poetry">I will tell about all<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> did for us,p> <p class="poetry">the many good things he did for the family of Israel,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">because of<n id="3" /> his compassion and great faithfulness.p>

They will bring back all your countrymen<n id="1" /> from all the nations as an offering to the <sc>Lordsc>. They will bring them<n id="2" /> on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels<n id="3" /> to my holy hill Jerusalem,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;just as the Israelites bring offerings to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple in ritually pure containers.