Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,

And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.

The Jews Destroy Their Enemies

Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.

Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,

Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

“Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope,

The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.

Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope

“Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope.

Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.

And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security.

But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.”

Job Continues: Still I Will Hope in God

“Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.

Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.

“For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.

the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.

If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,

where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?

But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came.

Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.