Esther 9

1. And in the twelfth month, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and his order came to be executed, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, it was turned to be the opposite, so that the Jews had rule over the ones who hated them.

2. The Jews gathered themselves in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, in order to lay hands on any who sought their harm. And no man could withstand them, for the fear of them fell upon all people.

3. And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants and the governors and officers of the king helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

4. For Mordecai was great in the house of the king, and his fame went throughout all the provinces. For this man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.

5. And the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, and slaughter, and destruction; and did as they pleased tothose who hated them.

6. And in Shushan the palace the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

7. And also Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,

8. And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,

9. And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha

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

11. On that day the number of those who were killed in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.

12. And the king said to Esther the queen, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? And what is your petition, that it may be granted you? Or what further request do you have? And it shall be done.”

13. Then Esther said, “If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

14. And the king commanded it to be done. And the order was given at Shushan, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.

15. For the Jews in Shushan gathered themselves on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men at Shushan. But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

16. But the rest of the Jews in the king’s provinces gathered themselves and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of their foes. But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

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

18. But the Jews at Shushan gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth. And on the fifteenth day of the same month, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

19. Therefore the Jews of the villages, who lived in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and a day of sending portions to one another.

20. And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far,

21. To establish among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,

22. As the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions to one another, and gifts to the poor.

23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them,

24. Because Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, the lot, to finish them and to destroy them.

25. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plot 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.

26. So they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore, for all the words of this letter, and which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had happened to them,

27. The Jews ordained, and took upon themselves and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves to them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;

28. And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city and these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

29. And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

30. And he sent the letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,

31. In order to confirm these days of Purim in their set times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had ordered them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed in the matters of the fastings and of their cry.

32. And the order of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim. And it was written in the book.