Quotes About Community

When Estherís words were relayed to Mordecai,

he sent back to her this reply: “Do not imagine that because you are in the kingís palace you alone will escape the fate of all the Jews.

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:

“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

For how could I bear to see the disaster that would befall my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”

For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.

In every province and every city, wherever the kingís edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many of the people of the land themselves became Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

In each of the provinces of King Xerxes, the Jews assembled in their cities to attack those who sought to harm them. No man could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.

Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.

This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested, making it a day of feasting and joy.

This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.

to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar

as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.

Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced,

the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation.

For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews and highly favored by his many kinsmen, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen.

He had seven sons and three daughters,

Jobís sons would take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

Now when Jobís three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.

Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.

to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them.