שְׁנַ֫יִם

In the twelve months before her turn to go to King Xerxes, the harem regulation required each young woman to receive beauty treatments with oil of myrrh for six months, and then with perfumes and cosmetics for another six months.

In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, grew angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

After the report had been investigated and verified, both officials were hanged on the gallows. And all this was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king.

In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

The single day appointed throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict were to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but their plan was overturned and the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

…the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation.

Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

Only grant these two things to me, so that I need not hide from You:

For God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices.

I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”

After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A Miktam of David for instruction. When he fought Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and Joab returned and struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. You have rejected us, O God; You have broken us; You have been angry; restore us!

God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,

Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the LORD.

Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the LORD.

Ears that hear and eyes that see—the LORD has made them both.

For they will bring sudden destruction. Who knows what ruin they can bring?

A stone is heavy and sand is a burden, but aggravation from a fool outweighs them both.

The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives light to the eyes of both.

Two things I ask of You—do not refuse me before I die:

The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.

Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone?

And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.

Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

The strong man will become tinder and his work will be a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the flames.

Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

…and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.

Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

These pairs have befallen you: devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will grieve for you? Who can comfort you?

“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, as well as the officials of Judah and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD.

“Have you not noticed what these people are saying: ‘The LORD has rejected the two families He had chosen’? So they despise My people and no longer regard them as a nation.

And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.