The rest of the chapters of the Book of Esther
The rest of Esther 14
Chapter XIV · Vol. III, p. 1547
The prayer of queen Esther for herself and her people.
2 2And laid away her glorious apparel, and put on the garments of anguish and mourning: and instead of precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body greatly, and all the places of her joy she filled with her torn hair.
2 See Esth. 5. 1.
3 And 3she prayed unto the Lord God of Israel, saying, O my Lord, thou only art our King: help me, desolate woman, which have no helper but thee:
3 ch. 13. 8.
5 5From my youth up I have heard in the tribe of my family, that thou, O Lord, tookest Israel from among all people, and our fathers from all their predecessors, for a perpetual inheritance, and thou hast performed whatsoever thou didst promise them.
5 Ps. 71. 17. & 78. 3, 4.
6 And now we have sinned before thee: therefore hast thou given us into the hands of our enemies,
7 Because we worshipped their gods: O Lord, thou art righteous.
8 Nevertheless it satisfieth them not, that we are in bitter captivity: but they have stricken hands with their idols,
9 That they will abolish the thing 6that thou with thy mouth hast ordained, and destroy 7thine inheritance, and stop the mouth of them that praise thee, and quench the glory of thy house, and of thine altar,
10 And open the mouths of the heathen 8to set forth the praises of the 9idols, and to magnify a fleshly king for ever.
8 Dan. 5. 4.
9 Gr. vain things.
11 O Lord, give not thy sceptre unto them that *be nothing, and let them not laugh at our fall; but turn their device upon themselves, and make him an example, that hath begun this against us.
* Gr. be not.
12 †Remember, O Lord, make thyself known in time of our affliction, and give me boldness, O King of the ‡nations, and Lord of all power.
† Ps. 19. 50.
‡ Or, gods.
13 Give me eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion: turn his heart to hate him that fighteth against us, that there may be an end of him, and of all that are like minded to him:
14 But deliver us with thy hand, and help me that ||am desolate, and which have no other helper but thee.
|| ver. 3.
15 Thou knowest all things, O Lord; thou knowest 1that I hate the glory of the unrighteous, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised, and of 2all the heathen.
1 Ps. 15. 4.
2 Gr. every stranger.
16 Thou knowest my necessity: for I abhor the sign of my 3high estate, which is upon my head in the days wherein I shew myself, and that I abhor it as a menstruous rag, and that I wear it not when I am 4private by myself.
3 Gr. pride.
4 Gr. quiet, or, private
17 And that thy handmaid hath not eaten at 5Aman's table, and that I have not greatly esteemed the king's feast, nor drunk the wine of the drink-offerings.
5 ch. 13. 6.
18 Neither had thy handmaid any joy since the day 6that I was brought hither to this present, 7but in thee, O Lord God of Abraham.
6 Gr. of my change.
7 Prov. 14. 10.