Esther 9
1 For in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth day of the month which is Adar, the letters written by the king arrived.
Now in the twelfth month (that is the month of Adar), on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and his decree was about to put into execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, then the tables were turned so that the Jews had the mastery over those who hated them.
2 In that day the adversaries of the Jews perished: for no one resisted, through fear of them.
The Jews gathered together in the cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to attack anyone who tried to harm them. No one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen on all the peoples.
3 For the chiefs of the satraps, and the princes and the royal scribes, honoured the Jews; for the fear of Mardochæus lay upon them.
All the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and they who attended to the king’s business, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
4 For the order of the king was in force, that he should be celebrated in all the kingdom.
For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace, and as his power increased his fame spread throughout all the provinces.
The Jews put all their enemies to the sword and, with slaughter and destruction, they did what they wanted to those who hated them.
6 And in the city Susa the Jews slew five hundred men:
In Susa the capital the Jews killed five hundred people.
7 both Pharsannes, and Delphon and Phasga,
They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8 and Pharadatha, and Barea, and Sarbaca,
Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9 and Marmasima, and Ruphæus, and Arsæus, and Zabuthæus,
Parmashta, Arisia, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
10 the ten sons of Aman the son of Amadathes the Bugæan, the enemy of the Jews, and they plundered [their property] on the same day:
the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy; but they did not take any plunder.
11 and the number of them that perished in Susa was rendered to the king.
On that day the number of those who were slain in Susa was brought before the king,
12 And the king said to Esther, The Jews have slain five hundred men in the city Susa; and how, thinkest thou, have they used them in the rest of the country? What then dost thou yet ask, that it may be [done] for thee?
and the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have slain five hundred people in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It will be granted to you. What is your request? It will be done.”
13 And Esther said to the king, Let it be granted to the Jews so to treat them to-morrow as to hang the ten sons of Aman.
“If it please the king,” Esther said, “let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree. Let the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”
14 And he permitted it to be so done; and he gave up to the Jews of the city the bodies of the sons of Aman to hang.
And the king commanded it to be done. A decree was given out in Susa and they hung the bodies of Haman’s ten sons on the gallows.
15 And the Jews assembled in Susa on the fourteenth [day] of Adar, and slew three hundred men, but plundered no property.
The Jews who were in Susa gathered themselves together again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar. They killed three hundred people in Susa. But they did not take any plunder.
16 And the rest of the Jews who were in the kingdom assembled, and helped one another, and obtained rest from their enemies: for they destroyed fifteen thousand of them on the thirteenth [day] of Adar, but took no spoil.
And the other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together and fought for their lives and overcame their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand who hated them. But they did not take any plunder.
17 And they rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a day of rest with joy and gladness.
This was on the thirteenth day of Adar. On the fourteenth day of the month Adar the Jews rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
18 And the Jews in the city Susa assembled also on the fourteenth [day] and rested; and they kept also the fifteenth with joy and gladness.
(But the Jews in Susa gathered on both the thirteenth and fourteenth day – and rested on the fifteenth day of the same month and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.)
19 On this account then [it is that] the Jews dispersed in every foreign land keep the fourteenth of Adar [as] a holy day with joy, sending portions each to his neighbour.
This is why the Jews who live in the country villages keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of rejoicing and feasting and a holiday, and a day in which they send gifts of food to each other.
20 And Mardochæus wrote these things in a book, and sent them to the Jews, as many as were in the kingdom of Artaxerxes, both them that were near and them that were afar off,
Mordecai had these things recorded. He sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far.
21 to establish these [as] joyful days, and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar;
He told them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth day every year,
22 for on these days the Jews obtained rest from their enemies: and [as to] the month, which was Adar, in which a change was made for them, from mourning to joy, and from sorrow to a good day, to spend the whole of it [in] good days of feasting and gladness, sending portions to their friends, and to the poor.
as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a feast day. They should make them days of feasting and gladness and of sending gifts of food to each other and of gifts to the poor.
23 And the Jews consented [to this] accordingly as Mardochæus wrote to them,
So what the Jews had begun to do they adopted as a custom, just as Mordecai had written to them.
24 [shewing] how Aman the son of Amadathes the Macedonian fought against them, how he made a decree and cast lots to destroy them utterly;
For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy them. He had cast ‘Pur’, that is the lot, intending to consume them and to destroy them.
25 also how he went in to the king, telling [him] to hang Mardochæus: but all the calamities he tried to bring upon the Jews came upon himself, and he was hanged, and his children.
But when the matter came before the king, he gave written orders that his wicked plot, which he had planned against the Jews, should come upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 Therefore these days were called Phruræ, because of the lots; (for in their language they are called Phruræ; ) because of the words of this letter, and [because of] all they suffered on this account, and all that happened to them.
This is why these days are called Purim, after the word Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, as well as all they had seen, and all they had experienced,
27 And [Mardochæus] established it, and the Jews took upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon those that were joined to them [to observe it], neither would they on any account behave differently: but these days [were to be] a memorial kept in every generation, and city, and family, and province.
the Jews established and made it a custom for them, for their descendants, and for all who should join them, so that it might not be repealed, that they should continue to observe these two days as feasts each year,
28 And these days of the Phruræ, [said they], shall be kept for ever, and their memorial shall not fail in any generation.
and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city. And these days of Purim should not pass away from among the Jews nor the remembrance of them disappear among their descendants.
29 And queen Esther, the daughter of Aminadab, and Mardochæus the Jew, wrote all that they had done, and the confirmation of the letter of Phruræ.
Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, gave Mordecai the Jew all authority in writing to confirm this second letter of Purim.
He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, wishing them peace and security,
31 And Mardochæus and Esther the queen appointed [a fast] for themselves privately, even at that time also having formed their plan against their own health.
to confirm these days of Purim in their proper times, to be observed as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had directed and as the Jews had proscribed for themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry of lamentation.
32 And Esther established it by a command for ever, and it was written for a memorial.
And the commands of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the records.
