Esther 9

1Now in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, the decree written by the king arrived.

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2On that day those in opposition were destroyed by the Jews, for fearing them, no one resisted.

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3For the leaders of the satraps, the sovereigns, and the royal scribes honored the Jews, and the fear of Mordecai weighed on them,

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4for the order of the king had come down that Mordecai should be acknowledged throughout the kingdom.

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5And in the city of Susa, the Jews killed five hundred men.

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6These included Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

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7Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

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8Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha,

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9the ten sons of Haman, son of Hamadatha, the enemy of the Jews. They ravaged them.

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10On that day, the number of those killed in Susa was reported to the king.

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11Then the king said to Esther, 'The Jews have killed five hundred men in the city of Susa. How do you think they have made out in the surrounding lands? What more do you yet desire, so that it will be done for you?'

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12Esther said to the king, 'Let the Jews be granted the opportunity to do the same tomorrow in order to hang the sons of Haman.'

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13And he permitted this to be done, and he set out for the Jews of the city the bodies of the sons of Haman to hang.

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14Then the Jews gathered together in Susa on the fourteenth of Adar and killed three hundred men, but they plundered nothing.

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15The rest of the Jews throughout the kingdom assembled and came to the aid of one another, and they had rest from their enemies, for they killed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth of Adar, but they plundered nothing.

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16Then they rested on the fourteenth of that month, and observed it as a day of rest with joy and gladness.

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17And the Jews in the city of Susa also gathered together on the fourteenth, but did not rest from their enemies, but they observed the fifteenth with joy and gladness.

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18This is why the Jews scattered in every foreign land observe the fourteenth of Adar with gladness as a holiday, sending parcels to their neighbors. But those living in the major cities keep the fifteenth of Adar as a holiday, sending parcels to their neighbors.

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19Mordecai wrote these things in a book and sent it to all the Jews in the kingdom of Artaxerxes, to those both near and far,

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20to establish these days as holidays, and to observe both the fourteenth and fifteenth day of Adar—

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21for on these days the Jews had rest from their enemies. Thus Adar is the month which was turned from mourning into joy, and from grief into a holiday; to celebrate the whole time with feasting and gladness, sending parcels to friends and to the poor.

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22The Jews accepted everything just as Mordecai wrote to them:

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23how Haman the son of Hamadatha, the Macedonian, warred against them; how he had made a decree and cast lots to exterminate them

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24how he had gone to the king telling him to hang Mordecai; and how all the evils he plotted against the Jews came upon himself, and how he was hanged, he and his children.

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25Therefore these days were called Purim—on account of the lots (because in their language they are called pur), because of the words of this letter, and because of all they had suffered on account of these things and all that had happened to them.

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26Mordecai established it, and the Jews took it upon themselves, their descendants, and upon those joining with them not to do otherwise. And these days are to be a memorial throughout every generation, and city, and family, and province.

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27Thus these days of Purim shall be observed forever, and their remembrance shall not cease in any generation.

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28Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote down the many things they had done and the truthfulness of the command of Purim.

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29And Mordecai and Queen Esther established it for themselves, establishing it at that time according to their soundness of mind and their purpose.

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30Esther established it by a command forever, and it was written for a memorial.

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