Esther 9

¹ On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, when the king's command and edict were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, the reverse happened: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them.

² The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought to harm them. No one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all peoples.

³ All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the royal agents supported the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

⁴ For Mordecai was powerful in the king's palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.

⁵ The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.

⁶ In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men.

⁷ They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha—

¹⁰ the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

¹¹ That very day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king.

¹² The king said to Queen Esther, "In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed 500 men and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. What further is your request? It shall be fulfilled."

¹³ Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to act according to today's edict, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on poles."

¹⁴ So the king commanded this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.

¹⁵ The Jews in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed 300 men in Susa, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

¹⁶ The rest of the Jews in the king's provinces gathered to defend their lives and got relief from their enemies, killing 75,000 of those who hated them. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder.

¹⁷ This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸ But the Jews in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

²¹ obligating them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth day, year by year,

²² as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday—that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

²⁴ For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur—that is, the lot—to crush and destroy them.

²⁵ But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his wicked plot that he had devised against the Jews should come back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on poles.

²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. Because of all that was written in this letter, and what they had seen in this matter, and what had happened to them,

²⁷ the Jews firmly established and accepted for themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the appointed time, every year,

²⁸ and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every family, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of them cease among their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim.

³⁰ Letters were sent to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,

³¹ confirming these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had obligated them, and as they had established for themselves and their offspring regulations concerning their fasting and their lamenting.

³² The command of Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing.