¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?^(A) What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”^(B)

² They have taken some of their daughters^(A) as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled^(B) the holy race^(C) with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”^(D)

⁸ Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs^(A) are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey^(B) the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.^(C)

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace,^(A) who has made the two groups one^(B) and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,