Septuagint (Greek Old Testament)

And the rest of the Jews who were in the kingdom assembled, and helped one another, and obtained rest from their enemies: for they destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth [day] of Adar, but took no spoil.

And they rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a day of rest with joy and gladness.

And the Jews in the city Susa assembled also on the fourteenth [day] and rested; and they kept also the fifteenth with joy and gladness.

On this account then [it is that] the Jews dispersed in every foreign land keep the fourteenth of Adar [as] a holy day with joy, sending portions each to his neighbour.

And Mardochæus wrote these things in a book, and sent them to the Jews, as many as were in the kingdom of Artaxerxes, both them that were near and them that were afar off,

to establish these [as] joyful days, and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar;

for on these days the Jews obtained rest from their enemies: and [as to] the month, which was Adar, in which a change was made for them, from mourning to joy, and from sorrow to a good day, to spend the whole of it [in] good days of feasting and gladness, sending portions to their friends, and to the poor.

And the Jews consented [to this] accordingly as Mardochæus wrote to them,

[shewing] how Aman the son of Amadathes the Macedonian fought against them, how he made a decree and cast lots to destroy them utterly;

also how he went in to the king, telling [him] to hang Mardochæus: but all the calamities he tried to bring upon the Jews came upon himself, and he was hanged, and his children.

Therefore these days were called Phruræ, because of the lots; (for in their language they are called Phruræ;) because of the words of this letter, and [because of] all they suffered on this account, and all that happened to them.

And [Mardochæus] established it, and the Jews took upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon those that were joined to them [to observe it], neither would they on any account behave differently: but these days [were to be] a memorial kept in every generation, and city, and family, and province.

And these days of the Phruræ, [said they], shall be kept for ever, and their memorial shall not fail in any generation.

And queen Esther, the daughter of Aminadab, and Mardochæus the Jew, wrote all that they had done, and the confirmation of the letter of Phruræ.

And Mardochæus and Esther the queen appointed [a fast] for themselves privately, even at that time also having formed their plan against their own health.

And Esther established it by a command for ever, and it was written for a memorial.

And the king levied [a tax] upon [his] kingdom both by land and sea.

And [as for] his strength and valour, and the wealth and glory of his kingdom, behold, they are written in the book of the Persians and Medes, for a memorial.

And Mardochæus was viceroy to king Artaxerxes, and was a great man in the kingdom, and honoured by the Jews, and passed his life beloved of all his nation.

Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth: think of the Lord with a good (heart,) and in simplicity of heart seek him.

For he will be found of them that tempt him not; and sheweth himself unto such as do not distrust him.

For froward thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise.

For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter: nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.

For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.

For wisdom is a loving spirit; and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words: for God is witness of his reins, and a true beholder of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.

Therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things cannot be hidden: neither shall vengeance, when it punisheth, pass by him.

For inquisition shall be made into the counsels of the ungodly: and the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord for the manifestation of his wicked deeds.

For the ear of jealousy heareth all things: and the noise of murmurings is not hid.

Therefore beware of murmuring, which is unprofitable; and refrain your tongue from backbiting: for there is no word so secret, that shall go for nought: and the mouth that belieth slayeth the soul.

Seek not death in the error of your life: and pull not upon yourselves destruction with the works of your hands.

For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.

For he created all things, that they might have their being: and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth:

(for righteousness is immortal:)

but ungodly men with their works and words called it to them: for when they thought to have it their friend, they consumed to nought, and made a covenant with it, because they are worthy to take part with it.

For [the ungodly] said, reasoning with themselves, [but] not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.

For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:

which being extinguished, our body shall be turned to ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,

and our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.

For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.

Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.

Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us.

Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:

let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.

Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient grey hairs of the aged.

Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.

He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.

He was made to reprove our thoughts.

He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion.

We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.

Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.

Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.

Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.

For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that are of his side do find it.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.

In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,

and their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace.

For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.

And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering.

And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.

They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.

They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.

But the ungodly shall be punished according to their own imaginations, which have neglected the righteous, and forsaken the Lord.

For whoso despiseth wisdom and nurture, he is miserable, and their hope is vain, their labours unfruitful, and their works unprofitable:

their wives are foolish, and their children wicked:

Their offspring is cursed. Wherefore blessed is the barren that is undefiled, which hath not known the sinful bed: she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls.

And [blessed is] the eunuch, which with his hands hath wrought no iniquity, nor imagined wicked things against God: for unto him shall be given the special gift of faith, and an inheritance in the temple of the Lord more acceptable to his mind.

For glorious is the fruit of good labours: and the root of wisdom shall never fall away.

As for the children of adulterers, they shall not come to their perfection, and the seed of an unrighteous bed shall be rooted out.

For though they live long, yet shall they be nothing regarded: and their last age shall be without honour.

Or, if they die quickly, they have no hope, neither comfort in the day of trial.

For horrible is the end of the unrighteous generation.

Better it is to have no children, and to have virtue: for the memorial thereof is immortal: because it is known with God, and with men.

When it is present, men take example at it; and when it is gone, they desire it: it weareth a crown, and triumpheth for ever, having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled rewards.

But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast foundation.

For though they flourish in branches for a time; yet standing not fast, they shall be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds they shall be rooted out.

The imperfect branches shall be broken off, their fruit unprofitable, not ripe to eat, yea, meet for nothing.

For children begotten of unlawful beds are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their trial.

But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest.

For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years.

But wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.

He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated.

Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.

For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind.

He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time:

for his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he [to take him away] from among the wicked.

This the people saw, and understood not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.

Thus the righteous that is dead shall condemn the ungodly which are living; and youth that is soon perfected the many years and old age of the unrighteous.

For they shall see the end of the wise, and shall not understand what God in his counsel hath decreed of him, and to what end the Lord hath set him in safety.

They shall see him, and despise him; but God shall laugh them to scorn; and they shall hereafter be a vile carcase, and a reproach among the dead for evermore.

For he shall rend them, and cast them down headlong, that they shall be speechless; and he shall shake them from the foundation; and they shall be utterly laid waste, and be in sorrow; and their memorial shall perish.

And when they cast up the account of their sins, they shall come with fear: and their own iniquities shall convince them to their face.

Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours.

When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for.