Xerxes’ Royal Feast

¹This is what happened in the days of Xerxes,who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush.

²In those days King Xerxes sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa.

³In the third year of his reign, Xerxes held a feast for all his officials and servants. The military leaders of Persia and Media were there, along with the nobles and princes of the provinces.

⁴And for a full 180 days he displayed the glorious riches of his kingdom and the magnificent splendor of his greatness.

⁵At the end of this time, in the garden court of the royal palace, the king held a seven-day feast for all the people in the citadel of Susa, from the least to the greatest.

⁶Hangings of white and blue linen were fastened with cords of fine white and purple material to silver rings on the marble pillars. Gold and silver couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones.

⁷Beverages were served in an array of goblets of gold, each with a different design, and the royal wine flowed freely, according to the king’s bounty.

⁸By order of the king, no limit was placed on the drinking, and every official of his household was to serve each man whatever he desired.

Queen Vashti’s Refusal

⁹Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.

¹⁰On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas—

¹¹to bring Queen Vashti before him, wearing her royal crown, to display her beauty to the people and officials. For she was beautiful to behold.

¹²Queen Vashti, however, refused to come at the king’s command brought by his eunuchs. And the king became furious, and his anger burned within him.

Queen Vashti Deposed

¹³Then the king consulted the wise men who knew the times, for it was customary for him to confer with the experts in law and justice.

¹⁴His closest advisors were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media who had personal access to the king and ranked highest in the kingdom.

¹⁵“According to law,” he asked, “what should be done with Queen Vashti, since she refused to obey the command of King Xerxes delivered by the eunuchs?”

¹⁶And in the presence of the king and his princes, Memucan replied, “Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king, but all the princes and the peoples in all the provinces of King Xerxes.

¹⁷For the conduct of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to despise their husbandsand say, ‘King Xerxes ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she did not come.’

¹⁸This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard about the queen’s conduct will say the same thing to all the king’s officials, resulting in much contempt and wrath.

¹⁹So if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree, and let it be recorded in the laws of Persia and Media so that it cannot be repealed, that Vashti shall never again enter the presence of King Xerxes, and that her royal position shall be given to a woman better than she.

²⁰The edict the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom—and so all women, from the least to the greatest, will honor their husbands.”

²¹The king and his princes were pleased with this counsel; so the king did as Memucan advised.

²²He sent letters to all the provinces of the kingdom, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, proclaimingthat every man should be master of his own household.

Hosea Redeems His Wife

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by anotherand is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silverand a homer and a lethech of barley.

³Then I said to her, “You must live with me for many days; you must not be promiscuous or belong to another, and I will do the same for you.”

⁴For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.

⁵Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.

The Widow’s Oil

¹Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”

²“How can I help you?” asked Elisha. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

³“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow empty jars from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.

⁴Then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these jars, setting the full ones aside.”

⁵So she left him, and after she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing jars to her, and she kept pouring.

⁶When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another.”But he replied, “There are no more jars.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt. Then you and your sons can live on the remainder.”

The Shunammite Woman

⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.

⁹Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.

¹⁰Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”

¹¹One day Elisha came to visit and went to his upper room to lie down.

¹²And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.”And when he had called her, she stood before him,

¹³and Elisha said to Gehazi, “Now tell her, ‘Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”“I have a home among my own people,” she replied.

¹⁴So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?”“Well, she has no son,” Gehazi replied, “and her husband is old.”

¹⁵“Call her,” said Elisha.So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway.

¹⁶And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.”“No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.”

¹⁷But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son

¹⁸And the child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the harvesters.

¹⁹“My head! My head!” he complained to his father.So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

²⁰After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

²¹And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.

²²And the woman called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may go quickly to the man of God and return.”

²³“Why would you go to him today?” he replied. “It is not a New Moon or a Sabbath.”“Everything is all right,” she said.

²⁴Then she saddled the donkey and told her servant, “Drive onward; do not slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”

²⁵So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman.

²⁶Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”And she answered, “Everything is all right.”

²⁷When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

²⁸Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”

²⁹So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment,take my staff in your hand, and go! If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Then lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

³⁰And the mother of the boy said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

³¹Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

³²When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his bed.

³³So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.

³⁴Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body became warm.

³⁵Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came.Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”

³⁷She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

Elisha Purifies the Poisonous Stew

³⁸When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

⁴⁰And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹Then Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Feeding a Hundred Men

⁴²Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain.“Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.

⁴³But his servant asked, “How am I to set twenty loaves before a hundred men?”“Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha, “for this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”

⁴⁴So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.

Warnings about the Adulteress

¹My son, keep my wordsand treasure my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live;guard my teachings as the appleof your eye.

³Tie them to your fingers;write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”and call understanding your kinsman,

⁵that they may keep you from the adulteress,from the stranger with seductive words.

⁶For at the window of my houseI looked through the lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple,I noticed among the youths,a young man lacking judgment,

⁸crossing the street near her corner,strolling down the road to her house,

⁹at twilight, as the day was fadinginto the dark of the night.

¹⁰Then a woman came out to meet him,with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

¹¹She is loud and defiant;her feet do not remain at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares,she lurks at every corner.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him;she brazenly says to him:

¹⁴“I have made my peace offerings;today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵So I came out to meet you;I sought you, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have decked my bed with coverings,with colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,with aloes, and with cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.Let us delight in loving caresses!

¹⁹For my husband is not at home;he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took with him a bag of moneyand will not return till the moon is full.”

²¹With her great persuasion she entices him;with her flattering lips she lures him.

²²He follows her on impulse,like an ox going to the slaughter,like a deer bounding into a trap,

²³until an arrow pierces his liver,like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, my sons, listen to me,and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways;do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death;her slain are many in number.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol,descending to the chambers of death.