1Now in the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—on its thirteenth day, when the king’s word and his decree were to be carried out, on the day when the enemies of the Jews had hoped to gain the mastery over them, it was overturned, so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them.
2The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who sought their harm; and no one could stand before them, for the dread of them had fallen on all the peoples.
3And all the officials of the provinces, and the satraps and the governors and those doing the king’s work, were supporting the Jews, because the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.
4For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame was spreading throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai was becoming greater and greater.
5So the Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and they did as they pleased with those who hated them.
6And in Susa the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.
7And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
8and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
9and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha—
10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the adversary of the Jews, they killed; but on the plunder they did not lay their hand.
11On that day the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was brought before the king.
12And the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men, along with the ten sons of Haman. In the rest of the king’s provinces, what must they have done! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your further request? It shall be done.”
13And Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to the decree of today, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”
14And the king commanded it to be done so; a decree was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
15And the Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they killed in Susa three hundred men; but on the plunder they did not lay their hand.
16Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled and defended their lives and gained rest from their enemies, and they killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but on the plunder they did not lay their hand.
17This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and on the fourteenth day of it they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
18But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth day of it and on the fourteenth of it, and they rested on the fifteenth of it, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
19Therefore the Jews of the open country, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and of sending portions of food to one another.
20And Mordecai wrote down these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21to establish among them the practice of observing the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day of it, year by year,
22as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies, and the month that was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning to a holiday—to make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
23So the Jews took upon themselves what they had begun to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.
24For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot) to crush them and to destroy them.
25But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26Therefore these days were called Purim, after the name Pur. Thus, because of all the words of this letter, and because of what they had seen concerning this and what had happened to them,
27the Jews established and took upon themselves and upon their descendants, and upon all who joined themselves to them, that it should not be neglected—to observe these two days according to their prescribed writing and their appointed time, year by year;
28and that these days should be remembered and observed in every generation, in every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fall out of use among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their descendants.
29Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim.
30And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus—words of peace and truth—
31to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established for them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their descendants the matters of the fasts and their lamentation.
32And the command of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.
Open in the interactive reader →