28
And all Israel cried out mightily, for their death was before their eyes.
29
And Esther the queen, seized with deathly anxiety, fled to the Lord;
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she took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body, and every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair.
31
And she prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: Lord, thou only art our King; help me, who am alone and have no helper but thee,
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for my danger is in my hand.
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Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that thou, O Lord, didst take Israel out of all the nations, and our fathers from among all their ancestors, for an everlasting inheritance, and that thou didst do for them all that thou didst promise.
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And now we have sinned before thee, and thou hast given us into the hands of our enemies,
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because we glorified their gods. Thou art righteous, O Lord!
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And now they are not satisfied that we are in bitter slavery, but they have covenanted with their idols
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to abolish what thy mouth has ordained and to destroy thy inheritance, to stop the mouths of those who praise thee and to quench thy altar and the glory of thy house,
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to open the mouths of the nations for the praise of vain idols, and to magnify for ever a mortal king.