Esther 9

1In the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on its thirteenth day, the king’s command and his decree were due to be carried out. On the very day when the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite happened: the Jews overpowered those who hated them. 2The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to attack those who were seeking to harm them. No one could stand against them, because fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. 3All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king’s administrators supported the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. 4For Mordecai was powerful in the king’s palace, and his fame spread through all the provinces; the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.

5The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did as they pleased to those who hated them. 6In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men. 7They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, 10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 11That same day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king.

12The 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 must they have done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It will be granted you. What else do you ask? It will be done.” 13Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa be allowed to act tomorrow too, as today’s decree allows, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.” 14So the king ordered that this be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. 15The Jews in Susa gathered again on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and killed 300 men in Susa. But they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 16Meanwhile the rest of the Jews in the king’s provinces gathered to defend their lives, and they had rest from their enemies. They killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 17This was on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. On the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy. 18But the Jews in Susa had gathered on both the thirteenth and the fourteenth, so they rested on the fifteenth and made it a day of feasting and joy. 19That is why the Jews of the villages, who live in unwalled towns, keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a holiday, when they send gifts of food to one another.

20Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21to require them to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year, 22as the days when the Jews got rest from their enemies, and as the month that was turned for them from grief into joy and from mourning into a holiday. They were to make them days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. 23So the Jews made a custom of what they had begun to do, and of what Mordecai had written to them. 24For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He had cast Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them. 25But when Esther came before the king, he gave orders in writing that the evil plan Haman had plotted against the Jews should fall back on his own head, and Haman and his sons were hanged on the gallows. 26That is why these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. And so, because of everything written in this letter, and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, 27the Jews made it a binding custom for themselves, for their descendants and for all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days, as it was written and at the appointed time every year. 28These days are to be remembered and kept in every generation, by every clan, in every province and in every city. These days of Purim must never disappear from among the Jews, and the memory of them must never fade among their descendants.

29Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. 30Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had ordered them, and as they had taken on themselves and their descendants the keeping of fasts and lamenting. 32Esther’s command confirmed these rules for Purim, and it was written down in the book.