Esther 9

¹ In the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on its thirteenth day, the time came for the king’s command and decree to be carried out. It was the day when the Jews’ enemies had hoped to overpower them, but the opposite happened: the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

² The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to strike at those seeking to harm them. No one could stand against them, because all the peoples had become afraid of them.

³ All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s administrators supported the Jews, because they had become afraid of Mordecai.

⁴ For Mordecai was powerful in the king’s palace, and his reputation spread throughout all the provinces. Mordecai grew more and more powerful.

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

⁶ In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

⁷ They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.

¹⁰ They killed the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹¹ That 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 five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your petition? It will be granted to you. And what else do you request? It will be done.”

¹³ Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa also be allowed tomorrow to act according to today’s decree, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”

¹⁴ The king ordered that it be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.

¹⁵ The Jews in Susa gathered again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹⁶ The rest of the Jews in the king’s provinces gathered to defend their lives. They found relief from their enemies and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹⁷ This took place on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

¹⁸ The Jews in Susa had gathered on the thirteenth and fourteenth days. They rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and joy.

¹⁹ That is why the Jews in the countryside, who live in unwalled towns, celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy, feasting, and celebration, and as a day for sending portions of food to one another.

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far.

²¹ He established for them that they should celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year.

²² These were the days when the Jews found relief from their enemies, and the month that had turned for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to celebration. They were to make them days of feasting and joy, of sending portions of food to one another, and of giving gifts to the poor.

²³ The Jews agreed to continue what they had begun to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

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

²⁵ But when Esther came before the king, he issued a written order that Haman’s evil plot against the Jews should fall back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶ That is why these days were called Purim, after Pur, the lot. Because of everything written in that letter, and everything they had seen and experienced, they established this observance.

²⁷ The Jews established and accepted this custom for themselves, their descendants, and all who joined them: they would never fail to observe these two days, as written and at the appointed time, every year.

²⁸ These days are remembered and celebrated in every generation, every family, every province, and every city. These days of Purim will never cease among the Jews, and their memory will never fade from their descendants.

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

³⁰ He sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth.

³¹ They were to observe these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them. They had also established for themselves and their descendants the instructions concerning their fasts and their lament.

³² Esther’s order confirmed these instructions about Purim, and it was recorded in a book.

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