So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest, ¹  and said to him, “Why have you not made ²  the Levites collect ³  from Judah and Jerusalem the tax authorized by Moses the Lord’s servant and by the assembly of Israel at the tent containing the tablets of the law?” ⁴ 

Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³ 

Jonadab son of Rechab ordered his descendants not to drink wine. His orders have been carried out. ¹  To this day his descendants have drunk no wine because they have obeyed what their ancestor commanded them. But I ²  have spoken to you over and over again, ³  but you have not obeyed me!

So know and understand: From the issuing of the command ¹  to restore and rebuild Jerusalem ²  until an anointed one, a prince arrives, ³  there will be a period of seven weeks ⁴  and sixty-two weeks. It will again be built, ⁵  with plaza and moat, but in distressful times.

but he answered ¹  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ²  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ³  you never gave me even a goat ⁴  so that I could celebrate with my friends!

So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command ¹  of the Lord. All of them were leaders ²  of the Israelites.

From Issachar there were 200 leaders and all their relatives at their command – they understood the times and knew what Israel should do. ¹ 

They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

But Queen Vashti refused ¹  to come at the king’s bidding ²  conveyed through the eunuchs. Then the king became extremely angry, and his rage consumed ³  him.

The king asked, ¹  “By law, ²  what should be done to Queen Vashti in light of the fact that she has not obeyed the instructions of King Ahasuerus conveyed through the eunuchs?”

Esther was still not divulging her lineage or her people, ¹  just as Mordecai had instructed her. ²  Esther continued to do whatever Mordecai said, just as she had done when he was raising her.

A copy of this edict was to be presented as law throughout every province; it was to be made known to all the inhabitants, ¹  so that they would be prepared for this day.

The couriers who were riding the royal horses went forth with the king’s edict without delay. ¹  And the law was presented in Susa the citadel as well.

when he gave the sea his decree that the waters should not pass over his command, ¹  when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

(Now the chief priests and the Pharisees ¹  had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus ²  was should report it, so that they could arrest ³  him.) ⁴ 

Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, ¹  and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. ² 

If anyone considers himself a prophet or spiritual person, he should acknowledge that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, ¹  mentioned the exodus of the sons of Israel ²  and gave instructions about his burial. ³ 

For ¹  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ²  rebelled against my command ³  to show me as holy ⁴  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command ¹  of the Lord, and he died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.