4894 verses about World

This is the copy of the letter that they sent: To King Artaxerxes, From your servants the men beyond the River.

Be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us to Jerusalem. They are building the rebellious and bad city, and have finished the walls, and repaired the foundations.

Be it known now to the king that if this city is built and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and in the end it will be hurtful to the kings.

that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. You will see in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to kings and provinces, and that they have started rebellions within it in the past. That is why this city was destroyed.

We inform the king that, if this city is built and the walls finished, then you will have no possession beyond the River.

I decreed, and search has been made, and it was found that this city has made insurrection against kings in the past, and that rebellion and revolts have been made in it.

There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who have ruled over all the country beyond the River; and tribute, custom, and toll, was paid to them.

Make a decree now to cause these men to cease, and that this city not be built, until a decree is made by me.

The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king follows.

But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.

The gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king also took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.

The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, ate,

Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land, to which you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.

Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’

They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;

Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.

Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women.”

Now let our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned from us, until this matter is resolved.”

When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammontite servant, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us, and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?”

Also I said, “The thing that you do is not good. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?

“So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they pleased.

It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.

Some men of Tyre also lived there, who brought in fish and all kinds of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

Didn’t your fathers do thus, and didn’t our God bring all this evil on us, and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares camped outside of Jerusalem once or twice.

In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;

Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.

Now in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),

in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace,

in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him.

When these days were fulfilled, the king made a seven day feast for all the people who were present in Shushan the palace, both great and small, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.

There were hangings of white, green, and blue material, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and marble pillars. The couches were of gold and silver, on a pavement of red, white, yellow, and black marble.

and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face, and sat first in the kingdom),

Today, the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will tell all the king’s princes. This will cause much contempt and wrath.

“If it pleases the king, let a royal commandment go from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.

Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s house, to the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them;

and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” The thing pleased the king, and he did so.

who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

So, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of Susa, to the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

When the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate.

After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.

All the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him homage.

But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people.

Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain.

Then the king’s scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king’s ring.

A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day.

The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.

Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.

the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy, but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.

The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.

King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the islands of the sea.

His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.

Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.

Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider’s web.

He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.

He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit.”

In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.

“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.

He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.

He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.

how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”

If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’

Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.

He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,

that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’