This is what happened during the time of Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. At that time, King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials…For a full 180 days, he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty…Wine was served in ...  Read More

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD;Look to the Rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn;look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth.When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many."The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins;He will make her deserts like E...  Read More

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.It is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new.See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.The wild animals in the field will thank Me, the jackals and the owls, too, for giving them water in the desert.Yes, I will make ri...  Read More

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron . . . And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.". . . Joshua son of Nun and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed t...  Read More

But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!"But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. "We can't go up against them! They are stronger than we are!" So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: "The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who ...  Read More

The LORD now said to Moses, "Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites.  . . . So Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He sent out twelve men . . . After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel . . .  They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had take...  Read More