7131	RUT 1:2	His name was Elimelech and his wife’s was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. After they had been living in Moab for some time,
7138	RUT 1:9	The Lord grant that each of you may find peace and happiness in the house of a new husband.’ Then she kissed them; but they began to weep aloud
7139	RUT 1:10	and said to her, ‘No, we will return with you to your people.’
7142	RUT 1:13	would you wait for them until they were grown up? Would you remain single for them? No, my daughters! My heart grieves for you, for the Lord has sent me adversity.’
7144	RUT 1:15	‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and to her own gods. Go along with her!’
7146	RUT 1:17	I will die where you die, and be buried there. May the Lord bring a curse upon me, if anything but death separate you and me.’
7148	RUT 1:19	So they journeyed on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival stirred the whole town, and the women said, ‘Can this be Naomi?’
7149	RUT 1:20	‘Do not call me Naomi,’ she said to them, ‘call me Mara, for the Almighty has given me a bitter lot.
7150	RUT 1:21	I had plenty when I left, but the Lord has brought me back empty handed. Why should you call me Naomi, now that the Lord has afflicted me, and the Almighty has brought misfortune on me?’
7153	RUT 2:2	Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ‘Let me now go into the fields and gather leftover grain behind anyone who will allow me.’ ‘Go, my daughter,’ she replied.
7155	RUT 2:4	When Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you,’ they answered him, ‘May the Lord bless you.’
7156	RUT 2:5	‘Whose girl is this?’ Boaz asked his servant who had charge of the reapers.
7158	RUT 2:7	She asked to be allowed to glean and gather sheaves after the reapers. So she came and has continued to work until now and she has not rested a moment in the field.’
7160	RUT 2:9	Watch where the men are reaping and follow the gleaners. I have told the young men not to trouble you. When you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink of that which the young men have drawn.’
7161	RUT 2:10	Then she bowed low and said to him, ‘Why are you so kind to me, to take interest in me when I am just a foreigner?’
7163	RUT 2:12	May the Lord repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully rewarded by the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’
7164	RUT 2:13	Then she said, ‘I trust I may please you, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, although I am not really equal to one of your own servants.’
7165	RUT 2:14	At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Come here and eat some of the food and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.’ So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied and had some left.
7167	RUT 2:16	Also pull out some for her from the bundles and leave for her to glean, and do not find fault with her.’
7170	RUT 2:19	‘Where did you glean today, and where did you work?’ asked her mother-in-law. ‘A blessing on him who took notice of you!’ So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. ‘The name of the man with whom I worked today,’ she said, ‘is Boaz.’
7171	RUT 2:20	Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May the blessing of the Lord rest on this man who has not ceased to show his loving-kindness to the living and to the dead. The man,’ she added, ‘is a near relation of ours.’
7172	RUT 2:21	‘He told me,’ Ruth said, ‘that I must keep near his young men until they have completed all his harvest.’
7173	RUT 2:22	Naomi said to Ruth, ‘It is best, my daughter, that you should go out with his girls because you might not be as safe in another field.’
7178	RUT 3:4	Then when he lies down, mark the place where he lies. Go in, uncover his feet, lie down, and then he will tell you what to do.’
7179	RUT 3:5	‘I will do as you say.’ Ruth said to her.
7183	RUT 3:9	‘Who are you?’ he said. ‘I am Ruth your servant,’ she answered, ‘Spread your cloak over your servant, for you are a near relative.’
7187	RUT 3:13	Stay here tonight, and then in the morning, if he will perform for you the duty of a kinsman, well, let him do it. But if he will not perform for you the duty of a kinsman, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it for you. Lie down until morning.’
7188	RUT 3:14	So she lay at his feet until morning, but rose before anyone could recognise her, for Boaz said, ‘No one must know that a woman came to the threshing-floor.’
7189	RUT 3:15	He also said, ‘Bring the cloak which you have on and hold it.’ So she held it while he poured into it six measures of barley and laid it on her shoulders. Then he went into the city.
7190	RUT 3:16	When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, ‘Is it you, my daughter?’ Then Ruth told Naomi all that the man had done for her.
7191	RUT 3:17	‘He gave me these six measures of barley,’ she said, ‘for he said I should not go to my mother-in-law empty-handed.’
7192	RUT 3:18	‘Wait quietly, my daughter.’ Naomi said, ‘Until you know how the affair will turn out, for the man will not rest unless he settles it all today.’
7193	RUT 4:1	Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down. Just then the near kinsman of whom Boaz had spoken came along. Boaz said, ‘Hello, So-and-so (calling him by name), come here and sit down.’ So he stopped and sat down.
7194	RUT 4:2	Boaz also took ten of the town elders and said, ‘Sit down here.’ So they sat down.
7196	RUT 4:4	and I thought that I would lay the matter before you, suggesting that you buy it in the presence of these men who sit here and of the elders of my people. If you will buy it and so keep it in the possession of the family, do so; but if not; then tell me, so that I may know; for no one but you has the right to buy it, and I am next to you.’ ‘I will buy it,’ he said.
7197	RUT 4:5	Then Boaz said, ‘On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you must also marry Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to preserve the name of the dead in connection with his inheritance.’
7198	RUT 4:6	‘I cannot buy it for myself without spoiling my own inheritance,’ the near relative said. ‘You take my right of buying it as a relative, because I cannot do so.’
7200	RUT 4:8	So when the near relative said to Boaz, ‘Buy it for yourself,’ Boaz drew off the man’s sandal.
7201	RUT 4:9	Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, ‘You are witnesses at this time that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s from Naomi.
7202	RUT 4:10	Moreover I have secured Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in connection with his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his relatives and from the household where he lived. You are witnesses this day.’
7204	RUT 4:12	From the children whom the Lord will give you by this young woman may your household become like the household of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’
7207	RUT 4:15	This child will restore your vigor and nourish you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is worth more to you than seven sons, has borne a son to Boaz!’
7209	RUT 4:17	The women of the neighbourhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son is born to Naomi!’ They named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.
12711	EST 1:5	When these days were ended, the king held a banquet for all the people who were present in the royal palace at Susa, high and low alike. It was a seven days’ feast in the enclosed garden of the royal palace.
12713	EST 1:7	Drink was brought in vessels of gold – which were all different – and the king’s wine was provided with royal liberality.
12715	EST 1:9	Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the King Ahasuerus’ royal palace.
12721	EST 1:15	‘Queen Vashti’, the king said, ‘has failed to obey my royal command – the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed through the eunuchs! What does the law say should be done to her?’
12722	EST 1:16	Memucan replied before the king and the officials, ‘Queen Vashti has done wrong not only to the king but also to all the officials and to all the peoples in all of the king’s provinces.
12724	EST 1:18	This very day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the refusal of the queen will tell it to all the king’s officials, and there will be contempt and strife!
12726	EST 1:20	When the king’s decree which he makes is heard throughout his kingdom – great as it is – the wives of all classes will give honour to their husbands.’
12730	EST 2:2	Then the king’s servants who waited upon him said, ‘Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king,
12731	EST 2:3	and let the king appoint commissioners to all the provinces of his kingdom to gather them all to Susa the royal residence. Let them be brought into the women’s quarters under the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who has charge of the women. Then give them what is needed to make them beautiful,
12732	EST 2:4	and let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.’ The proposal pleased the king so he put it into action.
12735	EST 2:7	Mordecai had adopted Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, since she had neither father nor mother. The girl was shapely and beautiful; and after her father and mother died, Mordecai raised her as if she was his own daughter.
12736	EST 2:8	When the king’s command and decree were known, many girls were gathered together to Susa the capital under the custody of Hegai. Esther was also taken into the king’s palace and placed under the custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women.
12737	EST 2:9	The girl pleased him and gained his favour, so that he quickly gave her the cosmetics she needed to enhance her beauty and her allowance of food and the seven maids selected from the king’s household. He also transferred her and her maids to the best place in the harem.
12739	EST 2:11	Every day Mordecai would to walk in front of the courtyard of the harem and ask after Esther’s health and what was happening to her.
12741	EST 2:13	each girl went in to the king. She was allowed to take with her whatever she wished from the women’s quarters,
12742	EST 2:14	and would enter the palace in the evening and return the next morning to another part of the harem under the care of the king’s eunuch Shaashgaz who was in charge of concubines. She would not go to the king again unless he desired her and summoned her by name.
12743	EST 2:15	When it was the turn of Esther (the girl adopted by Mordecai, daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go in to the king, she only took with her those things that Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the women, had advised her to take. Esther was liked by all who saw her.
12747	EST 2:19	All the time the virgins were assembled again, Mordecai was sitting as an offical at the king’s gate.
12749	EST 2:21	In those days while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the royal court attendants, Bigthan and Teresh, who guarded the entrance of the palace, became enraged and attempted to kill King Ahasuerus.
12750	EST 2:22	But Mordecai learned of the conspiracy and disclosed it to Queen Esther, and she told the king on Mordecai’s behalf.
12753	EST 3:2	All the king’s courtiers who were in the king’s gate used to bow down before Haman, for so the king had commanded, but Mordecai did not bow down nor prostrate himself.
12754	EST 3:3	Then the king’s courtiers, who were in the king’s gate, said to Mordecai, ‘Why do you disobey the king’s command?’
12755	EST 3:4	When they had spoken to him day after day without his listening to them, they informed Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s acts would be tolerated, for he had told them that he was a Jew.
12757	EST 3:6	But it seemed to him beneath his dignity to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who Mordecai’s people were. Instead Haman sought to destroy all the people of Mordecai, all the Jews throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus.
12759	EST 3:8	So Haman said to King Ahasuerus, ‘There is a certain people scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, whose laws differ from those of every other and who do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not right for the king to tolerate them.
12760	EST 3:9	If it seems best to the king, let an order be given to destroy them, and I will pay ten thousand silver coins into the royal treasury.’
12762	EST 3:11	‘The money is yours,’ the king said to Haman, ‘and the people also to do with them as you wish.’
12763	EST 3:12	And so, on the thirteenth day of the first month, the king’s secretaries were summoned and as Haman instructed an edict was issued to the king’s satraps and provincial governors and the rulers of each of the peoples in their own script and their own language. The edict was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with his ring.
12764	EST 3:13	Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, saying: Destroy, kill, put an end to all the Jews, young and old, little children and women, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, and plunder their possessions.
12768	EST 4:2	He went as far as the king’s gate, but no one could enter the gate clothed with sackcloth.
12769	EST 4:3	In every province, wherever the king’s command and decree went, there was great mourning, fasting, weeping, and wailing among the Jews. Many of them sat in sackcloth and ashes.
12770	EST 4:4	When Esther’s maids and attendants told her about Mordecai’s behaviour, she was greatly troubled. She sent garments for Mordecai to put on, so that he could take off his sack-cloth, but he would not accept them.
12771	EST 4:5	So Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what it all meant and the reason for it.
12772	EST 4:6	So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square in front of the king’s gate.
12773	EST 4:7	Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasury for the destruction of the Jews.
12777	EST 4:11	‘All the king’s courtiers and the people of the king’s provinces know that for every man or woman who goes to the king into the inner court without being called there is one penalty, death, unless the king holds out the golden sceptre signifying that they may live. It has been thirty days since I have been called to go in to the king.’
12779	EST 4:13	he sent back this reply to Esther, ‘Don’t imagine that you alone of all the Jews will escape because you belong to the king’s household.
12780	EST 4:14	If you persist in remaining silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, but you and your family will perish. Who knows? Maybe you have been raised to the throne for a time like this!’
12782	EST 4:16	‘Go, gather all the Jews in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat nor drink anything for three days and nights. My maids and I will fast as well. Then I will go in to the king, although it is contrary to the law, and if I die, I die.’
12784	EST 5:1	On the third day, Esther put on her regalia and stood in the inner court of the royal palace opposite the king’s house. The king was sitting on his throne in the palace, opposite the entrance.
12786	EST 5:3	Then the king said to her, ‘What is it, Queen Esther? Whatever your request is, it will be granted, even if it is the half of the kingdom.’
12787	EST 5:4	‘If it seems best to the king,’ Esther said, ‘let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.’
12788	EST 5:5	Then the king ordered, ‘Bring Haman quickly, so that Esther’s wish may be gratified.’ So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
12789	EST 5:6	While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, ‘Whatever your petition is, it will be granted. Your request, it will be done – even if it takes half of my kingdom.’
12791	EST 5:8	‘If I have won the king’s favour and if it seems best to the king to grant my petition and to accede to my request, my petition and my request are that the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them. Tomorrow I will answer the king’s question as he wishes.’
12792	EST 5:9	Haman went out that day joyful and elated, but when he saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and noticed that he neither stood up nor moved for him, he was furiously angry with Mordecai.
12795	EST 5:12	‘What is more,’ Haman said, ‘Queen Esther brought no one in with the king to the banquet which she had prepared except me, and tomorrow also I am invited by her along with the king.
12796	EST 5:13	Yet all this does not satisfy me as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.’
12797	EST 5:14	Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, ‘Let a gallows seventy-five feet high be erected, and in the morning speak to the king and let Mordecai be hanged on it. Then go merrily with the king to the banquet.’ The advice pleased Haman, and so he had the gallows erected.
12799	EST 6:2	It was found recorded how Mordecai had furnished information regarding Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s attendants who guarded the entrance of the palace, who had attempted to kill King Ahasuerus.
12800	EST 6:3	‘What honour and dignity have been conferred on Mordecai for this?’ the king asked. When the king’s pages who waited on him replied ‘Nothing has been done for him,’
12801	EST 6:4	the king said, ‘Who is in the court?’ Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s house to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
12802	EST 6:5	So the king’s pages said to him, ‘Haman is standing there, in the court.’ The king said, ‘Let him enter.’
12803	EST 6:6	So Haman entered, and the king said to him, ‘What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honour?’ Haman said to himself, ‘Whom besides me could the king wish to honour?’
12806	EST 6:9	Then let the garment and the horse be placed in charge of one of the king’s noble officials. Let him clothe the man whom the king wishes to honour and let him lead that man on the horse through the city square, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honour.”’
12807	EST 6:10	Then the king said to Haman, ‘Make haste and take the garment and the horse, as you have said, and do this to Mordecai the Jew, who sits in the king’s gate. Omit nothing of all you have said.’
12808	EST 6:11	So Haman took the garment and the horse and clothed Mordecai, and made him ride through the city square and proclaimed before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honour.’