Esther 8:16

¹¹Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

¹⁰When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.

²⁸For you will light my lamp, LORD. My God will light up my darkness.

¹Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly. ²He came even before the king’s gate, for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁵For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning. ⁶As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” ⁷You, LORD, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled. ⁸I cried to you, LORD. I made supplication to the Lord: ⁹“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth? ¹⁰Hear, LORD, and have mercy on me. LORD, be my helper.” ¹¹You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

¹⁷This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.

¹⁰Then the LORD’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

¹⁶“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

²⁹You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the LORD’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock. ³⁰The LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.