Then all the people began to eat and drink, to send out portions, and to rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that had been made known to them.

For how could I bear to see the disaster that would befall my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”

as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.

Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.

He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”

My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,

I paced about as for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning for his mother.

Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one.

Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

Like one who removes a garment on a cold day or vinegar poured on a wound is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up!