If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.”

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If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

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18 (A)If I go out into the field,
    behold, those pierced by the sword!
(B)And if I enter the city,
    behold, the diseases of famine!
(C)For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land
    and have no knowledge.’”

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18 If I go into the country,
    I see those slain by the sword;
if I go into the city,
    I see the ravages of famine.(A)
Both prophet and priest
    have gone to a land they know not.(B)’”

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17 “But (A)when he (B)came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, (C)I have sinned against (D)heaven and before you. 19 (E)I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’

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17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned(A) against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

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(A)Who knows? God may turn and relent (B)and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

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Who knows?(A) God may yet relent(B) and with compassion turn(C) from his fierce anger(D) so that we will not perish.”

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14 Why do we sit still?
(A)Gather together; (B)let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has (C)given us (D)poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.

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14 Why are we sitting here?
    Gather together!
Let us flee to the fortified cities(A)
    and perish there!
For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and given us poisoned water(B) to drink,
    because we have sinned(C) against him.

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16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for (A)three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, (B)and if I perish, I perish.”[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Esther 4:16 Hebrew if I am destroyed, then I will be destroyed

16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast(A) for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”(B)

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14 We must all die; we are (A)like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means (B)so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.

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14 Like water(A) spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die.(B) But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person(C) does not remain banished from him.

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27 And just as (A)it is appointed for man to die once, and (B)after that comes judgment,

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27 Just as people are destined to die once,(A) and after that to face judgment,(B)

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13 When he was at (A)the Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named Irijah the son of (B)Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, (C)“You are deserting to the Chaldeans.” 14 And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to (D)the officials.

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13 But when he reached the Benjamin Gate,(A) the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”(B)

14 “That’s not true!” Jeremiah said. “I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested(C) Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

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19 Some of the men of Manasseh deserted to David (A)when he came with the Philistines for the battle against Saul. (Yet he did not help them, for the rulers of the Philistines took counsel and sent him away, saying, (B)“At peril to our heads he will desert to his master Saul.”)

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19 Some of the tribe of Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. (He and his men did not help the Philistines because, after consultation, their rulers sent him away. They said, “It will cost us our heads if he deserts to his master Saul.”)(A)

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