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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJAS">
 <div class="chapter ch4" data-usfm="JAS.4">
 <div class="label">4</div><div class="s1">Submit Yourselves to God</div><div class="p"> 1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don&#8217;t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.</div><div class="p"> 4You adulterous people,#4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1. don&#8217;t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us#4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;God opposes the proud</div><div class="q2">but shows favor to the humble.&#8221;#4:6 Prov. 3:34</div><div class="p"> 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.</div><div class="p"> 11Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister#4:11 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God&#8217;s family. or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you&#8212;who are you to judge your neighbor?</div><div class="s1">Boasting About Tomorrow</div><div class="p"> 13Now listen, you who say, &#8220;Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.&#8221; 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, &#8220;If it is the Lord&#8217;s will, we will live and do this or that.&#8221; 16As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn&#8217;t do it, it is sin for them.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJAS">
 <div class="chapter ch5" data-usfm="JAS.5">
 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">Warning to Rich Oppressors</div><div class="p"> 1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.#5:5 Or yourselves as in a day of feasting 6You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.</div><div class="s1">Patience in Suffering</div><div class="p"> 7Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord&#8217;s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord&#8217;s coming is near. 9Don&#8217;t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!</div><div class="p"> 10Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job&#8217;s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.</div><div class="p"> 12Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear&#8212;not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple &#8220;Yes&#8221; or &#8220;No.&#8221; Otherwise you will be condemned.</div><div class="s1">The Prayer of Faith</div><div class="p"> 13Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.</div><div class="p"> 17Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.</div><div class="p"> 19My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch5" data-usfm="EST.5">
 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">Esther&#8217;s Request to the King</div><div class="p"> 1On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king&#8217;s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance. 2When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.</div><div class="p"> 3Then the king asked, &#8220;What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4&#8220;If it pleases the king,&#8221; replied Esther, &#8220;let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5&#8220;Bring Haman at once,&#8221; the king said, &#8220;so that we may do what Esther asks.&#8221;</div><div class="p">So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared. 6As they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, &#8220;Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7Esther replied, &#8220;My petition and my request is this: 8If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king&#8217;s question.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">Haman&#8217;s Rage Against Mordecai</div><div class="p"> 9Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king&#8217;s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai. 10Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home.</div><div class="p">Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, 11Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials. 12&#8220;And that&#8217;s not all,&#8221; Haman added. &#8220;I&#8217;m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. 13But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king&#8217;s gate.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, &#8220;Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits,#5:14 That is, about 75 feet or about 23 meters and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.&#8221; This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch6" data-usfm="EST.6">
 <div class="label">6</div><div class="s1">Mordecai Honored</div><div class="p"> 1That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. 2It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king&#8217;s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.</div><div class="p"> 3&#8220;What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?&#8221; the king asked.</div><div class="p">&#8220;Nothing has been done for him,&#8221; his attendants answered.</div><div class="p"> 4The king said, &#8220;Who is in the court?&#8221; Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him.</div><div class="p"> 5His attendants answered, &#8220;Haman is standing in the court.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Bring him in,&#8221; the king ordered.</div><div class="p"> 6When Haman entered, the king asked him, &#8220;What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?&#8221;</div><div class="p">Now Haman thought to himself, &#8220;Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?&#8221; 7So he answered the king, &#8220;For the man the king delights to honor, 8have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. 9Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king&#8217;s most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, &#8216;This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10&#8220;Go at once,&#8221; the king commanded Haman. &#8220;Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king&#8217;s gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, &#8220;This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12Afterward Mordecai returned to the king&#8217;s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief, 13and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him.</div><div class="p">His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, &#8220;Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him&#8212;you will surely come to ruin!&#8221; 14While they were still talking with him, the king&#8217;s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet Esther had prepared.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch7" data-usfm="EST.7">
 <div class="label">7</div><div class="s1">Haman Impaled</div><div class="p"> 1So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther&#8217;s banquet, 2and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, &#8220;Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3Then Queen Esther answered, &#8220;If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life&#8212;this is my petition. And spare my people&#8212;this is my request. 4For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.#7:4 Or quiet, but the compensation our adversary offers cannot be compared with the loss the king would suffer&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, &#8220;Who is he? Where is he&#8212;the man who has dared to do such a thing?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6Esther said, &#8220;An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!&#8221;</div><div class="p">Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.</div><div class="p"> 8Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.</div><div class="p">The king exclaimed, &#8220;Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?&#8221;</div><div class="p">As soon as the word left the king&#8217;s mouth, they covered Haman&#8217;s face. 9Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, &#8220;A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits#7:9 That is, about 75 feet or about 23 meters stands by Haman&#8217;s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.&#8221;</div><div class="p">The king said, &#8220;Impale him on it!&#8221; 10So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king&#8217;s fury subsided.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="EST.8">
 <div class="label">8</div><div class="s1">The King&#8217;s Edict in Behalf of the Jews</div><div class="p"> 1That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. 2The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman&#8217;s estate.</div><div class="p"> 3Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. 4Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him.</div><div class="p"> 5&#8220;If it pleases the king,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king&#8217;s provinces. 6For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, &#8220;Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up. 8Now write another decree in the king&#8217;s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king&#8217;s signet ring&#8212;for no document written in the king&#8217;s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9At once the royal secretaries were summoned&#8212;on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai&#8217;s orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush.#8:9 That is, the upper Nile region These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language. 10Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king&#8217;s signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king.</div><div class="p"> 11The king&#8217;s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children,#8:11 Or province, together with their women and children, who might attack them; and to plunder the property of their enemies. 12The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. 13A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.</div><div class="p"> 14The couriers, riding the royal horses, went out, spurred on by the king&#8217;s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa.</div><div class="s1">The Triumph of the Jews</div><div class="p"> 15When Mordecai left the king&#8217;s presence, he was wearing royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous celebration. 16For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. 17In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.</div>
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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"> 1On 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. 2The 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. 3And 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. 4Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful.</div><div class="p"> 5The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. 6In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, 10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.</div><div class="p"> 11The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day. 12The 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;</div><div class="p"> 13&#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;</div><div class="p"> 14So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they impaled the ten sons of Haman. 15The 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.</div><div class="p"> 16Meanwhile, 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. 17This 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.</div><div class="p"> 18The 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.</div><div class="p"> 19That 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.</div><div class="s1">Purim Established</div><div class="p"> 20Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 21to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar 22as 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.</div><div class="p"> 23So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. 24For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. 25But when the plot came to the king&#8217;s attention,#9:25 Or when Esther came before the king 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. 26(Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, 27the 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. 28These 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.</div><div class="p"> 29So Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim. 30And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of Xerxes&#8217; kingdom&#8212;words of goodwill and assurance&#8212; 31to 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. 32Esther&#8217;s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the records.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEST">
 <div class="chapter ch10" data-usfm="EST.10">
 <div class="label">10</div><div class="s1">The Greatness of Mordecai</div><div class="p"> 1King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. 2And all his acts of power and might, together with a full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had promoted, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Media and Persia? 3Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews, and held in high esteem by his many fellow Jews, because he worked for the good of his people and spoke up for the welfare of all the Jews.</div>
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