erxes the Great, Mardocheus, who
was a Jew and dwelt in the city of Susa, had a dream. And the same night
he overheard two eunuchs plotting to lay hands on Artaxerxes, and he,
being a servitor in the king's court, told the king; and the eunuchs,
after examination, were strangled. Aman, because of this, induced
Artaxerxes to write to all the princes and governors from India unto
Ethiopia to destroy all the Jews, with their wives and children, without
pity, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar. Mardocheus and
Queen Esther, being in the fear of death, resorted unto the Lord, and
prayed for deliverance, and for the preservation of the children of
Israel. On the third day, Queen Esther cometh unto the king's presence;
and she was ruddy through the perfection of her beauty, but her heart
was in anguish for fear. The king looketh angrily at her as she stood
before his royal throne, and she fainteth. Then God changed the spirit
of the king, who leaped from his throne, took her in his arms, saying:
Be of good cheer, thou shalt not die, though our commandment be general.
As he was speaking, she fell a second time for faintness, and the king
was troubled and all his servants comforted her.

Artaxerxes then wrote a letter to all the princes wherein he taxed Aman,
the Macedonian, with having by manifold and cunning deceits sought the
destruction of Mardocheus, who had saved the king's life, and also of
the blameless Esther, partaker of his kingdom, with their whole nation.
The king revoked the decree procured by Aman, who, with all his family,
was hanged at the gates of Susa. And the king commanded the day of their
deliverance to be kept holy.

THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON

Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth, for into a malicious
soul wisdom shall not enter. The spirit of the Lord filleth the world:
therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things cannot be hid. Seek not
death in the error of your life: for God made not death, and
righteousness is immortal. The ungodly reason, but not aright: life is
short and tedious, which, being extinguished, our bodies shall be turned
into ashes, and our spirit vanish as the soft air. Come, therefore, let
us enjoy the good things that are present. Their own wickedness hath
blinded them, for God created man to be immortal.

Nevertheless, through envy of the devil came death into the world. The
souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and there shall no
torments