When evil people attack me and try to kill me, they stumble and fall.

Don't let them say to themselves, "We are rid of him! That's just what we wanted!"

Be merciful to me, O God, because I am under attack; my enemies persecute me all the time.

All day long my opponents attack me. There are so many who fight against me.

He will answer from heaven and save me; he will defeat my oppressors. God will show me his constant love and faithfulness.

They wanted to crush us completely; they burned down every holy place in the land.

"Come," they say, "let us destroy their nation, so that Israel will be forgotten forever."

and when he learned that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided to do more than punish Mordecai alone. He made plans to kill every Jew in the whole Persian Empire.

So on the thirteenth day of the first month Haman called the king's secretaries and dictated a proclamation to be translated into every language and system of writing used in the empire and to be sent to all the rulers, governors, and officials. It was issued in the name of King Xerxes and stamped with his ring.

Runners took this proclamation to every province of the empire. It contained the instructions that on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, all Jews---young and old, women and children---were to be killed. They were to be slaughtered without mercy and their belongings were to be taken.

But if the LORD does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the LORD."

and swallowed them and their families, together with all of Korah's followers and their possessions.

All the people of Israel who were there fled when they heard their cry. They shouted, "Run! The earth might swallow us too!"

They may be alive and well when we find them, but they'll be dead when we're through with them!

The king of Babylonia cut Jerusalem up and ate it. He emptied the city like a jar; like a monster he swallowed it. He took what he wanted and threw the rest away.

At the LORD's command a large fish swallowed Jonah, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Human anger only results in more praise for you; those who survive the wars will keep your festivals.

Saul became furious with Jonathan and said to him, "How rebellious and faithless your mother was! Now I know you are taking sides with David and are disgracing yourself and that mother of yours!

"Why should he die?" Jonathan replied. "What has he done?"

Then Nebuchadnezzar lost his temper, and his face turned red with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual.

When Herod realized that the visitors from the East had tricked him, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old and younger---this was done in accordance with what he had learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.

and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.