The couriers went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Susa, the palatial city. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.
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 bitterly.
So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square which was before the king's gate.
Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and the LORD hasn't done it?
"I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn't rain withered.
So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven't returned to me," says the LORD.
For thus says the Lord the LORD: "The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."
"The Lord the LORD has sworn by himself," says the LORD, the God of Armies: "I abhor the pride of Jacob, and detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it.
Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.'"
So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city: and the forces of the south shall not stand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to stand.
Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us.
My God, turn your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies' sake.
Lord, hear; Lord, forgive; Lord, listen and do; don't defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.
Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known;
you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.
You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all its spoil every whit, to the LORD your God: and it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.
then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.
but the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you shall take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.
When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?
Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.
then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;
and they shall tell the elders of his city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard."
All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;
and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.
All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;
then shall the father of the young lady, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate;
and behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;' and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity." They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him;
then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor's wife: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining:
From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and [from] the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us; the LORD our God delivered up all before us:
Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, "I don't want to take her;"
You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.
You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we didn't take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar.
We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.
The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn't know how to go to the city.
Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.
There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
The couriers went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.
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.
Let us love one another, for love comes from God and every one who loves is a child of God and knows God. He who loves not man does not know God, for God is love. God showed his love for us, for he sent his only Son into the world that through him we might have life. Love the stranger.
In Mark 12:30 Jesus said;
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment.
And the second Mark 12:31 [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.