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Stories of Strength Through Pain in the Bible

Preparing for Christmas

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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
    <div class="book bkEST">
        <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="EST.2.1+EST.2.2+EST.2.3+EST.2.4+EST.2.5+EST.2.6+EST.2.7+EST.2.8+EST.2.9+EST.2.10+EST.2.11">
            <div class="p"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="EST.2.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">Later when King Xerxes&#8217; fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="EST.2.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">Then the king&#8217;s personal attendants proposed, &#8220;Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. </span></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="EST.2.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king&#8217;s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="EST.2.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.&#8221; This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="EST.2.4"></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="EST.2.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="EST.2.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">2:6 </span><span class="ft">Hebrew </span><span class="fqa">Jeconiah, </span><span class="ft">a variant of </span><span class="fq">Jehoiachin</span></span></span><span class="content"> king of Judah. </span></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="EST.2.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="EST.2.7"></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="EST.2.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">When the king&#8217;s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king&#8217;s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. </span></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="EST.2.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king&#8217;s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="EST.2.9"></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="EST.2.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EST.2.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EST.2.11"></span></div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
    <div class="book bkEST">
        <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="EST.2.15+EST.2.16+EST.2.17">
            <div class="p"><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="EST.2.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king&#8217;s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. </span></span><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="EST.2.16"><span class="label">16</span><span class="content">She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="EST.2.16"></span><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="EST.2.17"><span class="label">17</span><span class="content">Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. </span></span></div>
        </div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
    <div class="book bkEST">
        <div class="chapter ch2" data-usfm="EST.2.19+EST.2.20">
            <div class="p"><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="EST.2.19"><span class="label">19</span><span class="content">When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king&#8217;s gate. </span></span><span class="verse v20" data-usfm="EST.2.20"><span class="label">20</span><span class="content">But Esther had kept secret her family background and nationality just as Mordecai had told her to do, for she continued to follow Mordecai&#8217;s instructions as she had done when he was bringing her up.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v20" data-usfm="EST.2.20"></span></div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
    <div class="book bkEST">
        <div class="chapter ch3" data-usfm="EST.3.1+EST.3.2+EST.3.3+EST.3.4+EST.3.5+EST.3.6+EST.3.7+EST.3.8+EST.3.9+EST.3.10+EST.3.11+EST.3.12+EST.3.13+EST.3.14+EST.3.15">
            <div class="p"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="EST.3.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="EST.3.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">All the royal officials at the king&#8217;s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="EST.3.2"></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="EST.3.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">Then the royal officials at the king&#8217;s gate asked Mordecai, &#8220;Why do you disobey the king&#8217;s command?&#8221; </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="EST.3.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai&#8217;s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="EST.3.4"></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="EST.3.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="EST.3.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">Yet having learned who Mordecai&#8217;s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai&#8217;s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="EST.3.6"></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="EST.3.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the </span><span class="tl"><span class="content">pur</span></span><span class="content"> (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">3:7 </span><span class="ft">Septuagint; Hebrew does not have </span><span class="fq">And the lot fell on</span><span class="fqa">.</span></span></span><span class="content"> the twelfth month, the month of Adar.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="EST.3.7"></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="EST.3.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">Then Haman said to King Xerxes, &#8220;There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king&#8217;s laws; it is not in the king&#8217;s best interest to tolerate them. </span></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="EST.3.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">3:9 </span><span class="ft">That is, about 375 tons or about 340 metric tons</span></span></span><span class="content"> of silver to the king&#8217;s administrators for the royal treasury.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="EST.3.9"></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="EST.3.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EST.3.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">&#8220;Keep the money,&#8221; the king said to Haman, &#8220;and do with the people as you please.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="EST.3.11"></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="EST.3.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">Then on the thirteenth day of the first month the royal secretaries were summoned. They wrote out in the script of each province and in the language of each people all Haman&#8217;s orders to the king&#8217;s satraps, the governors of the various provinces and the nobles of the various peoples. These were written in the name of King Xerxes himself and sealed with his own ring. </span></span><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="EST.3.13"><span class="label">13</span><span class="content">Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king&#8217;s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews&#8212;young and old, women and children&#8212;on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. </span></span><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="EST.3.14"><span class="label">14</span><span class="content">A 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 they would be ready for that day.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="EST.3.14"></span><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="EST.3.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">The couriers went out, spurred on by the king&#8217;s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was bewildered.</span></span></div>
        </div>
    </div>
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