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The Book of Esther

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- Chapter 9 -

The Jews destroy their tormentors

1
It was in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, that the Jews’ enemies had hoped to destroy them completely. They would have been following the king’s decree. However, it all turned out differently, for the Jews defeated their enemies.
2
The Jews gathered together in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to attack those who wanted to harm them. No one could fight against the Jews, because all the people in the areas were afraid of them.
3
All the king’s officials everywhere helped the Jews, because they had become afraid of Mordecai and the power that the king had given to him.
4
Mordecai was now the king’s most important official in the king’s palace, and his fame was spreading throughout the provinces because he was becoming very powerful.
5
So the Jews attacked their enemies and killed them. They defeated all those who hated them, and they were completely victorious.
6
Just in Susa alone, the fortified city, they killed five hundred men.
7
Among those whom they killed were the ten sons of Haman. These were among the dead: Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8
Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9
Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.
10
And the ten grandsons of Hammedatha, the sons of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. The Jews killed them, but they did not take their possessions.
11
At the end of that day someone reported to the king the number of people whom the Jews killed in Susa, the fortified city.
12
Then the king told Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed five hundred people right here in Susa, including Haman’s ten sons! What must they have done in the rest of my provinces? Now what else do you ask me to do for you? You tell me. What else do you want? And I will do it.”
13
Esther replied, “If it pleases you, allow the Jews here in Susa to do again tomorrow what you commanded them to do today. And also command that the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
14
So the king commanded that the Jews be permitted to kill more of their enemies the next day. After he issued another order in Susa, the bodies of Haman’s ten sons were hanged.
15
The Jews in Susa gathered together and killed three hundred more people. But again, they did not take away any of their possessions.
16
That happened on the 14th day of the month of Adar. On the following day, the Jews in Susa rested and celebrated. In all the other provinces, the Jewish people gathered together to defend themselves, and they killed seventy-five thousand people who hated them, but again, they took none of their possessions.
17
On the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day, they rested and made that a day of feasting and celebration.

The feast of Purim

18
But the Jews who were in Susa came together on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days to fight, but on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and celebration.
19
That is why the Jews of the villages, the Jews who live in the rural towns, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of gladness and celebration, when they send gifts of food to one another.
20
Mordecai wrote down all the things that had happened. Then he sent letters to the Jews who lived throughout the empire of King Ahasuerus.
21
He called them to observe the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of Adar every year,
22
because those were the days when the Jews got victory over their enemies. It was in that month that their sorrow was turned to joy. Mordecai’s letter told them that they should celebrate on those days by feasting and giving gifts of food to each other and especially to the poor people.
23
So the Jews agreed to do what Mordecai wrote. They agreed to celebrate on those days every year.
24
They would remember how Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, became an enemy of all the Jews. They would remember how he had made an evil plan to kill the Jews, and that he had cast lots to find a day to crush and destroy them.
25
They would remember that when the king learned about Haman’s plan, he arranged that the evil plan to kill the Jews would result instead in Haman’s own destruction, that Haman would be killed in place of the Jews, that he and that his sons would be hanged.
26
Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur (the lots that they cast). So that is what was written in this letter, what they had seen, and what had happened to them.
27
The Jews throughout the empire agreed to celebrate in that manner on those two days every year. They said that they would tell their descendants and anyone who became Jewish to be certain to celebrate this festival every year. They should celebrate just as Mordecai told them to do in the letter that he wrote.
28
They said that they would remember and celebrate on those two days every year, observe in every generation, by every family, in every city, and in every province. They solemnly declared that they and their descendants would never stop remembering and celebrating those days called Purim.
29
Then Mordecai and Queen Esther, who was the daughter of Abihail, wrote a second letter about the Purim festival. Esther used the authority that she had because of being the queen to confirm that what Mordecai had written in the first letter was true.
30
These letters were sent to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, words of peace and truth,
31
to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established, just as the Jews had established for themselves and their descendants, matters that included their times of fasting and lamenting.
32
The command of Esther confirmed these regulations that explained how they should celebrate the Purim festival. The instructions about the feast and the account of these events were written down in the book of history.

The Jews destroy their tormentors

1
Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree came near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, ( but it turned out that the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),
2
the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.
3
All the princes of the provinces, the local governors, the governors, and those who did the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
4
For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.
5
The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them.
6
In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.
7
They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8
Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9
Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
10
the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jewsenemy, but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
11
On that day, the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king.
12
The king said to Esther the queen, “ The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall be done.”
13
Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to today’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
14
The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Susa; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
15
The Jews who were in Susa gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Susa; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
16
The other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
17
This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

The feast of Purim

18
But the Jews who were in Susa assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
19
Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.
20
Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21
to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly,
22
as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.
23
The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them,
24
because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had castPur”, that is the lot, to consume them and to destroy them;
25
but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plan, which he had planned against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26
Therefore they called these daysPurim”, (a) from the wordPur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,
27
the Jews established and imposed on themselves, on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to what was written and according to its appointed time every year;
28
and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their offspring. (b)
29
Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.
30
He sent letters to all the Jews in the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus with words of peace and truth,
31
to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants in the matter of the fastings and their mourning.
32
The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

Footnotes

(a)9:26 Purim is the Hebrew plural for pur, which means lot.
(b)9:28 or, seed