Esther 9

¹ In the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of it, when the king's order and his edict attained to be executed, on that day to which the enemies of the Jews had looked forward so as to domineer over them, then this was overturned, in that the Jews themselves domineered over those hating them. ² In all the provinces of king Xerxes, the Jews had assembled in their cities to lay hand on those seeking to exact evil on them. No man could stand before them, for awesome fear had fallen on all the peoples. ³ All chief officials of the provinces, the satraps and the viceroys, those conducting the king's business, were assisting the Jews; for awesome fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴ For Mordecai's influence was great in the king's house, and his fame was spreading in all the provinces as the influence of the man Mordecai became towering. ⁵ The Jews smote all their enemies with the smiting of the sword, with killing and destruction; they did to those hating them as was acceptable to them. ⁶ In the castle of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men, ⁷ also Parshandatha, Dalphon and Aspatha, ⁸ Poratha, Adalia and Aridatha, ⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, ¹⁰ the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the foe of the Jews. They killed them, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder. ¹¹ On the same day the number of those killed in the castle of Susa came before the king; ¹² and the king said to queen Esther: "In the castle of Susa alone the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the remainder of the king's provinces? Now what is your request? It shall be granted to you. And what is your other urgent appeal? It shall also be done." ¹³ Esther answered: "If it seems good to the king, let it be granted to the Jews in Susa to execute also tomorrow according to the edict for today, and let them hang the ten sons of Haman on the gallows. ¹⁴ So the king ordered it to be done in this way; an edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman. ¹⁵ The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Susa, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder. ¹⁶ The remainder of the Jews in the king's provinces had assembled to stand up for their souls and to find rest from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of those hating them, but they did not lay their hand on the plunder. ¹⁷ That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and they came to rest on the fourteenth day of it and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. ¹⁸ As for the Jews in Susa, they had assembled both on the thirteenth day of it and on the fourteenth day of it; and they came to rest on the fifteenth day of it and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. ¹⁹ Therefore the rural Jews, those dwelling in unwalled villages, were observing the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of rejoicing and feasting and a cheerful day for sending assigned shares, each man to his associate. ²⁰ Mordecai wrote up these things and sent letters to all the Jews, those who were near and far, in all the provinces of king Xerxes, ²¹ to make it mandatory for them to keep on observing annually the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day of it, in every year ²² as the days on which the Jews found rest from their enemies and as the month when it turned for them from affliction to rejoicing and from mourning to a cheerful day, to observe them as days of feasting and rejoicing and sending assigned shares, each man to his associate, and gifts to the needy. ²³ The Jews made customary what they had started to practice and what Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴ For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the foe of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them and had cast pur (that is, the lot) to discomfit them and to destroy them. ²⁵ But when it came before the king, he ordered with a letter that his evil devising that he had devised against the Jews should get back on his own head; and so they hanged him and his sons on the gallows. ²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim, by the name of the pur. Therefore because of all the instructions of this letter and of what they had faced as to this matter and of what had attained to them, ²⁷ the Jews confirmed this and made it customary for themselves and for their seed and for all joining them as proselytes that they should not trespass; they ought to keep on observing annually these two days in accord with their written text and at their stated time in every year. ²⁸ These days should be remembered and observed by all, generation after generation, family after family, province after province, and city after city. These days of Purim should never pass away from the midst of the Jews, and their remembrance should not terminate among their seed. ²⁹ Also queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full enforcement to confirm this second letter of Purim. ³⁰ So letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces in Xerxes' kingdom, in words of peace and truth, ³¹ to confirm these days of Purim at their stated times just as Mordecai the Jew along with queen Esther had set these up for them, and just as they had made mandatory the instructions of fastings and their outcry for their own soul and for their seed. ³² Thus Esther's order confirmed these details of Purim, and it was written down in a scroll.