⁷ He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, ^(A)the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

¹⁵ When the turn came for Esther ^(A)the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what ^(B)Hegai the king's eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, ^(A)but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

⁶ Among these were ^(A)Daniel, ^(B)Hananiah, ^(C)Mishael, and ^(D)Azariah of the tribe of Judah. ⁷ And ^(E)the chief of the eunuchs ^(F)gave them names: ^(G)Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

⁷ Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ^(A)‘Buy my field that is at ^(B)Anathoth, ^(C)for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ ⁸ Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in ^(D)the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at ^(E)Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

⁹ “And I bought the field at ^(F)Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and ^(G)weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. ^10 (H)I signed the deed, ^(I)sealed it, ^(J)got witnesses, and ^(K)weighed the money on scales. ¹¹ Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. ¹² And I gave the deed of purchase to ^(L)Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of ^(M)the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in ^(N)the court of the guard.

¹¹ to bring Queen Vashti before the king with ^(A)her royal crown,^[a] in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.

⁵ And now your ^(A)two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, ^(B)are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.

3 See ^(A)what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called ^(B)children of God; and so we are. The reason why ^(C)the world does not know us is that ^(D)it did not know him.