The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;

The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me.

yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him, a perverse and crooked generation.

He said: I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness.

Gibeah’s Crime

While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.”

Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?

with the pure you show yourself pure, and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.

Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, giving orders to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.

Addition B

The King’s Letter

This is a copy of the letter: “The Great King, Ahasuerus, writes the following to the governors of the hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia and to the officials under them: “Having become ruler of many nations and master of the whole world (not elated with presumption of authority but always acting reasonably and with kindness), I have determined to settle the lives of my subjects in lasting tranquility and, in order to make my kingdom peaceable and open to travel throughout all its extent, to restore the peace desired by all people. “When I asked my counselors how this might be accomplished, Haman—who excels among us in sound judgment, and is distinguished for his unchanging goodwill and steadfast fidelity, and has attained the second place in the kingdom— pointed out to us that among all the nations in the world there is scattered a certain hostile people, who have laws contrary to those of every nation and continually disregard the ordinances of kings, so that the unifying of the kingdom that we honorably intend cannot be brought about. We understand that this people, and it alone, stands constantly in opposition to every nation, perversely following a strange manner of life and laws, and is ill-disposed to our government, doing all the harm they can so that our kingdom may not attain stability. “Therefore we have decreed that those indicated to you in the letters written by Haman, who is in charge of affairs and is our second father, shall all—wives and children included—be utterly destroyed by the swords of their enemies, without pity or restraint, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of this present year, so that those who have long been hostile and remain so may in a single day go down in violence to Hades, and leave our government completely secure and untroubled hereafter.”

End of Addition B

Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.

with the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.

They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.

Perverseness of heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.

It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely,

who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil;

for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever follows perverse ways will be found out.

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.

One is commended for good sense, but a perverse mind is despised.

The perverse get what their ways deserve, and the good, what their deeds deserve.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

A perverse person spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

One who winks the eyes plans perverse things; one who compresses the lips brings evil to pass.

The crooked of mind do not prosper, and the perverse of tongue fall into calamity.