Proper 21 (26)

1Verse 1. So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, 2Verse 2. and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.” 3Verse 3. Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request. 4Verse 4. For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.” 5Verse 5. Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?” 6Verse 6. Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man — Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.

4Verse 4. Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat? 5Verse 5. We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6Verse 6. But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!” 10Verse 10. Then Moses heard the people of family after family weeping at the entrances to their tents, and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was also displeased. 11Verse 11. So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have You brought this trouble on Your servant? Why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid upon me the burden of all these people? 12Verse 12. Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth, so that You should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You swore to give their fathers? 13Verse 13. Where can I get meat for all these people? For they keep crying out to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14Verse 14. I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me. 15Verse 15. If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now — if I have found favor in Your eyes — and let me not see my own wretchedness.” 16Verse 16. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you. 24Verse 24. So Moses went out and relayed to the people the words of the LORD, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent. 25Verse 25. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed that Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied — but they never did so again. 26Verse 26. Two men, however, had remained in the camp — one named Eldad and the other Medad — and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those listed, but they had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp. 27Verse 27. A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28Verse 28. Joshua son of Nun, the attendant to Moses since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” 29Verse 29. But Moses replied, “Are you jealous on my account? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would place His Spirit on them!”