אָב

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.

Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.

Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:

And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law:

And his brethren, chief of the fathers, two hundred forty and two: and Amashai the son of Azareel, the son of Ahasai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer,

And in the days of Joiakim were priests, the chief of the fathers: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, were recorded chief of the fathers: also the priests, to the reign of Darius the Persian.

The sons of Levi, the chief of the fathers, were written in the book of the chronicles, even until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.

Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.

And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men.

Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.

Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.