Esther 9

The day that was turned around

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.^{a 11}That 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.”^{b 14}So 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.^{c 17}This 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.

Mordecai’s letter and the days of Purim

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.^{d 25}But 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.^{e 26}That 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.^{f 30}Mordecai 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.^{g 32}Esther’s command confirmed these rules for Purim, and it was written down in the book.^h