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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkEST">
      <div class="chapter ch9" data-usfm="EST.9">
         <div class="label">9</div><div class="p"><span class="content">  </span><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="EST.9.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="EST.9.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. </span></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="EST.9.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king&#8217;s administrators helped the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had seized them. </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="EST.9.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="EST.9.4"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="EST.9.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="EST.9.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. </span></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="EST.9.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, </span></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="EST.9.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, </span></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="EST.9.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, </span></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="EST.9.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="EST.9.10"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EST.9.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day. </span></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="EST.9.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">The king said to Queen Esther, &#8220;The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in the citadel of Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king&#8217;s provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? It will also be granted.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="EST.9.12"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="EST.9.13"><span class="label">13</span><span class="content">&#8220;If it pleases the king,&#8221; Esther answered, &#8220;give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day&#8217;s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman&#8217;s ten sons be impaled on poles.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="EST.9.13"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="EST.9.14"><span class="label">14</span><span class="content">So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they impaled the ten sons of Haman. </span></span><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="EST.9.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="EST.9.15"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="EST.9.16"><span class="label">16</span><span class="content">Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king&#8217;s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of them but did not lay their hands on the plunder. </span></span><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="EST.9.17"><span class="label">17</span><span class="content">This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="EST.9.17"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v18" data-usfm="EST.9.18"><span class="label">18</span><span class="content">The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v18" data-usfm="EST.9.18"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="EST.9.19"><span class="label">19</span><span class="content">That is why rural Jews&#8212;those living in villages&#8212;observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Purim Established</span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="EST.9.19"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v20" data-usfm="EST.9.20"><span class="label">20</span><span class="content">Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, </span></span><span class="verse v21" data-usfm="EST.9.21"><span class="label">21</span><span class="content">to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar </span></span><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="EST.9.22"><span class="label">22</span><span class="content">as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="EST.9.22"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="EST.9.23"><span class="label">23</span><span class="content">So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. </span></span><span class="verse v24" data-usfm="EST.9.24"><span class="label">24</span><span class="content">For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the </span><span class="tl"><span class="content">pur</span></span><span class="content"> (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. </span></span><span class="verse v25" data-usfm="EST.9.25"><span class="label">25</span><span class="content">But when the plot came to the king&#8217;s attention,</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class=" body"><span class="fr">9:25 </span><span class="ft">Or </span><span class="fqa">when Esther came before the king</span></span></span><span class="content"> he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on poles. </span></span><span class="verse v26" data-usfm="EST.9.26"><span class="label">26</span><span class="content">(Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word </span><span class="tl"><span class="content">pur</span></span><span class="content">.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, </span></span><span class="verse v27" data-usfm="EST.9.27"><span class="label">27</span><span class="content">the Jews took it on themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. </span></span><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="EST.9.28"><span class="label">28</span><span class="content">These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews&#8212;nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="EST.9.28"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="EST.9.29"><span class="label">29</span><span class="content">So Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim. </span></span><span class="verse v30" data-usfm="EST.9.30"><span class="label">30</span><span class="content">And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of Xerxes&#8217; kingdom&#8212;words of goodwill and assurance&#8212; </span></span><span class="verse v31" data-usfm="EST.9.31"><span class="label">31</span><span class="content">to establish these days of Purim at their designated times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed for them, and as they had established for themselves and their descendants in regard to their times of fasting and lamentation. </span></span><span class="verse v32" data-usfm="EST.9.32"><span class="label">32</span><span class="content">Esther&#8217;s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records.</span></span></div>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkECC">
      <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="ECC.4">
         <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness</span></div><div class="p"><span class="content">  </span><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.4.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.4.1"><span class="content">I saw the tears of the oppressed&#8212;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.4.1"><span class="content">and they have no comforter;</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.4.1"><span class="content">power was on the side of their oppressors&#8212;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.4.1"><span class="content">and they have no comforter.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="ECC.4.1"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="ECC.4.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">And I declared that the dead,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="ECC.4.2"><span class="content">who had already died,</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="ECC.4.2"><span class="content">are happier than the living,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="ECC.4.2"><span class="content">who are still alive.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="ECC.4.2"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.4.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">But better than both</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.4.3"><span class="content">is the one who has never been born,</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.4.3"><span class="content">who has not seen the evil</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.4.3"><span class="content">that is done under the sun.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="ECC.4.3"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="ECC.4.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person&#8217;s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="ECC.4.4"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="ECC.4.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">Fools fold their hands</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="ECC.4.5"><span class="content">and ruin themselves.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="ECC.4.5"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="ECC.4.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">Better one handful with tranquillity</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="ECC.4.6"><span class="content">than two handfuls with toil</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="ECC.4.6"><span class="content">and chasing after the wind.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="ECC.4.6"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="ECC.4.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="ECC.4.7"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">There was a man all alone;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">he had neither son nor brother.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">There was no end to his toil,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">&#8220;For whom am I toiling,&#8221; he asked,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">&#8220;and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">This too is meaningless&#8212;</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">a miserable business!</span></span></div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="ECC.4.8"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="ECC.4.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">Two are better than one,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="ECC.4.9"><span class="content">because they have a good return for their labor:</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="ECC.4.9"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.4.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">If either of them falls down,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.4.10"><span class="content">one can help the other up.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.4.10"><span class="content">But pity anyone who falls</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.4.10"><span class="content">and has no one to help them up.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="ECC.4.10"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.4.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.4.11"><span class="content">But how can one keep warm alone?</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="ECC.4.11"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.4.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">Though one may be overpowered,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.4.12"><span class="content">two can defend themselves.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.4.12"><span class="content">A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Advancement Is Meaningless</span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="ECC.4.12"><span class="content">  </span></span><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="ECC.4.13"><span class="label">13</span><span class="content">Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. </span></span><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="ECC.4.14"><span class="label">14</span><span class="content">The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. </span></span><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="ECC.4.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king&#8217;s successor. </span></span><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="ECC.4.16"><span class="label">16</span><span class="content">There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.</span></span></div>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

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