Day 250 of 365

Esth 4:1–5:14

4:1 Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly.

4:2 He came even before the king's gate, for no one is allowed inside the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

4:3 In every province, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4:4 Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he did not receive it.

4:5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was.

4:6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to city square which was before the king's gate.

4:7 Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

4:8 He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.

4:9 Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

4:10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai:

4:11 "All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days."

4:12 They told to Mordecai Esther's words.

4:13 Then Mordecai asked them return answer to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that you will escape in the king's house any more than all the Jews.

4:14 For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

4:15 Then Esther asked them to answer Mordecai,

4:16 "Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."

4:17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

5:1 Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, next to the king's house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house.

5:2 When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter.

5:3 Then the king asked her, "What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom."

5:4 Esther said, "If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."

5:5 Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said." So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

5:6 The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, "What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed."

5:7 Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and my request is this.

5:8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said."

5:9 Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he did not stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.

5:10 Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home. There, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife.

5:11 Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

5:12 Haman also said, "Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king.

5:13 Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

5:14 Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet." This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.

Rom 11:1–20

1 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2 God did not reject his people, which he foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life."

4 But how does God answer him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.

7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he did not obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

8 According as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day."

9 David says, "Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.

10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always."

11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?

13 For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;

14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.

15 For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?

16 If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.

17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree;

18 do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.

19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in."

20 True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;

Job 11:1–12

1 Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

2 "Shouldn't the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

3 Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?

4 For you say, 'My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.'

5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,

6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

7 "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

8 They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

9 Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

10 If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?

11 For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn't consider it.

12 An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey's colt.