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Esther 14
Queen Esther also, fearing the danger that was at hand,
had recourse to the Lord.
And when she had laid away her royal apparel, she put
on garments suitable for weeping and mourning: instead
of divers precious ointments, she covered her head with
ashes and dung, and she humbled her body with fasts:
and all the places in which before she was accustomed
to rejoice, she filled with her torn hair.
And she prayed to the Lord the God of Israel, saying:
O my Lord, who alone art our king, help me a desolate
woman, and who have no other helper but thee.
My danger is in my hands.
I have heard of my father that thou, O Lord, didst take
Israel from among all nations, and our fathers from
all their predecessors, to possess them as an everlasting
inheritance, and thou hast done to them as thou hast
promised.
We have sinned in thy sight, and therefore thou hast
delivered us into the hands of our enemies:
For we have worshipped their gods. Thou art just, O
Lord.
And now they are not content to oppress us with most
hard bondage, but attributing the strength of their
hands to the power of their idols,
They design to change thy promises, and destroy thy
inheritance, and shut the mouths of them that praise
thee, and extinguish the glory of thy temple and altar,
That they may open the mouths of Gentiles, and praise
the strength of idols, and magnify for ever a carnal
king.
Give not, O Lord, thy sceptre to them that are not,
lest they laugh at our ruin: but turn their counsel
upon themselves, and destroy him that hath begun to
rage against us.
Remember, O Lord, and shew thyself to us in the time
of our tribulation, and give me boldness, O Lord, king
of gods, and of all power:
Give me a well ordered speech in my mouth in the presence
of the lion, and turn his heart to the hatred of our
enemy, that both he himself may perish, and the rest
that consent to him.
But deliver us by thy hand, and help me, who have no
other helper, but thee, O Lord, who hast the knowledge
of all things.
And thou knowest that I hate the glory of the wicked,
and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised, and of every
stranger.
Thou knowest my necessity, that I abominate the sign
of my pride and glory, which is upon my head in the
days of my public appearance, and detest it as a menstruous
rag, and wear it not in the days of my silence,
And that I have not eaten at Aman's table, nor hath
the king's banquet pleased me, and that I have not drunk
the wine of the drink offerings:
And that thy handmaid hath never rejoiced, since I was
brought hither unto this day, but in thee, O Lord, the
God of Abraham.
O God, who art mighty above all, hear the voice of them,
that have no other hope, and deliver us from the hand
of the wicked, and deliver me from my fear. |