Esther
Chapter 9
1 In the twelfth month, called Adar, on the thirteenth day, as the time for the king’s command and law to be acted on came close, when the Jews’ enemies hoped to control them, things changed so that the Jews gained power over those who hated them.
2 The Jews came together in their cities in all the king Ahasuerus’s provinces to act against those who wanted to harm them, and no one could oppose them because everyone was afraid of them.
3 All the province leaders, assistants, officials, and the king’s workers helped the Jews, because they were afraid of Mordecai.
4 Mordecai became very important in the king’s palace, and his reputation spread through all the provinces: Mordecai became more and more respected.
5 The Jews defeated all their enemies with swords, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.
6 In the palace of Shushan, the Jews killed five hundred men.
7 Parshandatha, Dalphon, and Aspatha,
8 And Poratha, Adalia, and Aridatha,
9 And Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha,
10 They killed the ten sons of Haman, Hammedatha’s son, who was an enemy of the Jews, but they did not take any of the loot.
11 On that day, they told the king how many people were killed in the palace of Shushan.
12 The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed five hundred men and Haman’s ten sons in the palace at Shushan. What have they done in the other parts of the kingdom? Now, what do you want to ask for? It will be given to you. What more do you request? It will be done.”
13 Then Esther said, “If the king agrees, let the Jews in Shushan have tomorrow to do as today’s order allows, and hang Haman’s ten sons on the gallows.”
14 The king ordered it, and they announced the law in Shushan; they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
15 The Jews in Shushan came together on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and killed three hundred men in Shushan; however, they did not take any of the things that belonged to those they killed.
16 The other Jews in the king’s lands came together, defended their lives, found peace from their enemies, and killed 75,000 of their foes, but they didn’t take any of the spoils.
17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day, they rested, and they made it a day of feasting and joy.
18 The Jewish people in Shushan gathered on the thirteenth day, and also on the fourteenth; then, on the fifteenth day, they rested and celebrated with a feast and joy.
19 So the Jews living in the villages and towns without walls celebrated the fourteenth day of the month Adar as a happy day with feasting and by giving food to each other.
20 Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews in every province of King Ahasuerus, near and far.
21 To make sure they celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year.
22 Like the days when the Jews had rest from their enemies, and when their sadness turned into happiness, and their grieving into celebration, they should make these days full of feasting and happiness, sharing food with each other, and giving presents to the poor.
23 The Jews agreed to continue the tradition they had started, just as Mordecai had instructed them.
24 Because Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite who was the enemy of all the Jews, planned to destroy the Jews and cast lots to finish them and wipe them out.
25 But when Esther approached the king, he ordered by letter that his evil plan against the Jews should backfire on him, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 That’s why they named these days Purim after the word Pur. So because of everything written in this letter, what they had seen about this event, and what had happened to them,
27 The Jewish people decided and agreed, both they and their descendants, and all who would join them, to always observe these two days every year as written and at the set time.
28 These days must be remembered and celebrated by every generation, every family, every region, and every city. The days of Purim should never be forgotten by the Jews, nor should the memory of them disappear from their descendants.
29 Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to make sure this second Purim letter was accepted.
30 He sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of King Ahasuerus’s kingdom, with messages of peace and truth.
31 To set these Purim days at their fixed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had told them to, and as they had decided for themselves and their descendants, about the fasts and their pleading.
32 Esther’s order made Purim rules official, and they were written down.