Esther 9

1Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and his decree were about to be carried out, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the situation was reversed: the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

2The Jews assembled 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, because fear of them had fallen on all the peoples.

3All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who carried out the king’s business supported the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

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

5So the 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 Susa the citadel itself the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred 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 Susa the citadel was reported to the king.

12The king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel 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? Now what is your wish? It will be granted to you. What further request do you have? It will be done.”

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

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

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

16The rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to defend their lives and to get relief 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 of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

18But the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days, and on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

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

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

21to establish among them that they should observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year,

22as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into joy and from mourning into a holiday. They were to observe them as days of feasting and joy, of sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

23So the Jews accepted what they had begun to do and 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, and he had cast pur, that is, the lot, to crush and destroy them.

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

26That is why these days are called Purim, from the word pur. So because of everything written in this letter, and because of what they had seen concerning this matter and what had happened to them,

27the Jews established it as a custom and took it on themselves, on their descendants, and on all who would join them, that without fail they would observe these two days every year, as it was written and at the appointed time.

28These days are to be remembered and observed in every generation, by every family, in every province, and in every city. These days of Purim are never to cease among the Jews, and the memory of them is never to die out among their descendants.

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

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

31to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them, and as they had established for themselves and for their descendants the matters of their fasts and their lamenting.

32The command of Esther confirmed these customs of Purim, and it was recorded in the book.