²⁶ The approval of a ruler is desired by great numbers: but the decision in a man's cause comes from the Lord.

⁶ Great numbers will make attempts to get the approval of a ruler: and every man is the special friend of him who has something to give.

⁹ Come to our help, Lord: let the king give ear to our cry.

⁴ For I am not conscious of any wrong in myself; but this does not make me clear, for it is the Lord who is my judge.

³⁵ And all the people of the earth are as nothing: he does his pleasure in the army of heaven and among the people of the earth: and no one is able to keep back his hand, or say to him, What are you doing?

⁴ And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I have given my strength for no purpose or profit: but still the Lord will take up my cause, and my God will give me my reward.

⁹ Let the things which are past come to your memory: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me;

¹⁰ Making clear from the first what is to come, and from past times the things which have not so far come about; saying, My purpose is fixed, and I will do all my pleasure;

¹¹ Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly be done.

¹ The king's heart in the hands of the Lord is like the water streams, and by him it is turned in any direction at his pleasure.

²¹ A man's heart may be full of designs, but the purpose of the Lord is unchanging.

⁷ When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his haters be at peace with him.

¹² And mercy, O Lord, is yours, for you give to every man the reward of his work.

¹⁶ Go, get together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and go without food for me, taking no food or drink night or day for three days: and I and my women will do the same; and so I will go in to the king, which is against the law: and if death is to be my fate, then let it come.

¹¹ O Lord, let your ear take note of the prayer of your servant, and of the prayers of your servants, who take delight in worshipping your name: give help, O Lord, to your servant this day, and let him have mercy in the eyes of this man. (Now I was the king's wine-servant.)

²⁷ Praise be to the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing into the heart of the king, to make fair the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem;

²⁸ And has given mercy to me before the king and his government and before all the king's great captains. And I was made strong by the hand of the Lord my God which was on me, and I got together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

¹⁴ So they took what their father said for the man, and twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph.