Esther 9

9 ¹In the twelfth month, Adar, on the thirteenth day—when the king's order and decree were to take effect, the day the Jews' enemies hoped to dominate them—it reversed: the Jews dominated their haters. ²The Jews gathered in their cities across King Xerxes's provinces to attack those seeking their harm. No one could stand against them; fear of them had fallen on all peoples. ³All the province officials, satraps, governors, and royal administrators supported the Jews, for fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴Mordecai grew powerful in the king's house; his fame spread through every province, for Mordecai himself grew more and more powerful. ⁵The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying, doing as they pleased to their haters. 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. ¹⁰Ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, enemy of the Jews, they killed—but they took no plunder.

¹¹That day the number killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king. ¹²The king said to Queen Esther, "In the fortress of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed 500 men and Haman's ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? What is your request? It will be given to you. What more do you ask? It will be done."

¹³Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa act again tomorrow under today's decree, and hang Haman's ten sons on poles."

¹⁴The king ordered it done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they hanged Haman's ten sons. ¹⁵Jews in Susa also gathered on Adar's fourteenth day, killed 300 men there, but didn't touch the plunder.

¹⁶The rest of the Jews in the king's provinces gathered to defend their lives, got relief from enemies, killed 75,000 who hated them, but touched no plunder. ¹⁷This happened on the thirteenth of Adar; the fourteenth they rested, making it a day of feasting and joy.

¹⁸In Susa the Jews gathered on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, resting on the fifteenth, making it a day of feasting and joy. ¹⁹That is why the Jews of the open villages celebrate the fourteenth of Adar with joy, feasting, a holiday, and sending food gifts to each other.

The Feast of Purim Established

²⁰Mordecai wrote these events, sending letters to all Jews in King Xerxes's provinces, near and far, ²¹to require them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year, ²²as the days the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month turned for them from grief to joy, mourning to celebration. He told them to keep them as days of feasting and joy, sending food gifts to each other and gifts to the poor. ²³The Jews adopted as a custom what they had begun doing, just as Mordecai wrote to them. ²⁴Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, enemy of all the Jews, planned their destruction and cast the pur—the lot—to crush and destroy them. ²⁵But when it came before the king, he ordered by letter that the evil scheme Haman schemed against the Jews fall back on his head, and that he and his sons be hung on the poles.

²⁶So these days are called Purim, after the word pur, because of all this letter's words, and because of what they saw and what happened to them. ²⁷The Jews bound themselves, their descendants, and all who joined them, to keep these two days yearly at the appointed time, without fail, as written. ²⁸Every generation, family, province, and city remembers and keeps these days; these Purim days will never end among the Jews, nor their memory die out among their descendants.

²⁹Queen Esther daughter of Abihail and Mordecai the Jew wrote with full authority confirming this second Purim letter. ³⁰Letters were sent to all the Jews in 127 provinces of Xerxes's kingdom—words of peace and truth, ³¹confirming these Purim days at their set times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther ordered for them, and as they ordered for themselves and their descendants, times of fasting and mourning. ³²Esther's command confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the record.