Esther 9
1 The first law that the king had commanded was to be made effective on March 7th. On that day the enemies of the Jews hoped to get rid of them. But instead, on that same day the Jews defeated their enemies.
Now on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, when the time came for the king's order to be put into effect, on the very day when the haters of the Jews had been hoping to have rule over them; though the opposite had come about, and the Jews had rule over their haters;
2 Throughout the empire, the Jews gathered together in their cities to attack those who wanted to get rid of them. No one could fight against the Jews, because all the other people in the areas where the Jews lived were afraid of them, [so they did not want to help anyone who attacked the Jews].
On that day, the Jews came together in their towns through all the divisions of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, for the purpose of attacking all those who were attempting evil against them: and everyone had to give way before them, for the fear of them had come on all the peoples.
3 All the governors and [other] officials and important people in all the provinces helped the Jews, because they were afraid of Mordecai.
And all the chiefs and the captains and the rulers and those who did the king's business gave support to the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai had come on them.
4 They were afraid of him because in all the provinces [they knew that] Mordecai was now the king’s most important official, [with the authority that Haman previously had]. Mordecai was becoming more famous because [the king was giving him] more and more power.
For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and word of him went out through every part of the kingdom: for the man Mordecai became greater and greater.
5 [On March 7th, ] the Jews attacked and killed with their swords all of their enemies. They did whatever they wanted to do, to the people who hated them.
So the Jews overcame all their attackers with the sword and with death and destruction, and did to their haters whatever they had a desire to do.
6 [Just] in Susa alone, the capital city, they killed 500 people.
And in Shushan the Jews put to death five hundred men.
7 Among those whom they killed were the ten sons of Haman. [Their names were] Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
They put to death Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.
Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,
10 Those were grandsons of Hammedatha and sons of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. The Jews killed them, but they did not take the things that belonged to the people whom they killed.
The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the hater of the Jews; but they put not a hand on any of their goods.
11 [At the end of] that day someone reported to the king the number of people whom the Jews killed in Susa.
On that day the number of those who had been put to death in the town of Shushan was given to the king.
12 Then the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed 500 people here in Susa, including the ten sons of Haman! [So I think that] they must have killed many more people in the rest of my empire [RHQ]! [But okay], now what else do you want me to do for you. You tell me, and I will do it.”
And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have put five hundred men to death in Shushan, as well as the ten sons of Haman: what then have they done in the rest of the kingdom! Now what is your prayer? for it will be given to you; what other request have you? and it will be done.
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 command that the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows/poles.”
Then Esther said, If it is the king's pleasure, let authority be given to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow as has been done today, and let orders be given for the hanging of Haman's ten sons.
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.
And the king said that this was to be done, and the order was given out in Shushan, and the hanging of Haman's ten sons was effected.
15 On the next day, the Jews in Susa gathered together and killed 300 more people. But [again, ] they did not take the things that belonged to the people whom they killed.
For the Jews who were in Shushan came together again on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and put to death three hundred men in Shushan; but they put not a hand on their goods.
16 That happened on March 8th. 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 75,000 people who hated them, but [again] they did not take the things that belonged to the people whom they killed.
And the other Jews in every division of the kingdom came together, fighting for their lives, and got salvation from their haters and put seventy-five thousand of them to death; but they did not put a hand on their goods.
17 That occurred on March 7th, and on the following day they rested and celebrated.
This they did on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same month they took their rest, and made it a day of feasting and joy.
18 After the Jews in Susa gathered together [and killed their enemies] on March 7th and 8th, they rested and celebrated on March 9th.
But the Jews in Shushan came together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth day of the month; and on the fifteenth day they took their rest, and made it a day of feasting and joy.
19 That is why [every year], on March 8th, the Jews who live in villages now celebrate [defeating their enemies]. They have feasts and give gifts [of food] to each other.
So the Jews of the country places living in unwalled towns make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of feasting and joy and a good day, a day for sending offerings one to 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 Xerxes.
And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in every division of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, near and far,
21 He told them that every year they should celebrate on the 8th and 9th of March,
Ordering them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same month, every year,
22 because those were the days when the Jews got rid of their enemies. He also told them that they should celebrate on those days by feasting and giving gifts [of food] to each other and to poor people. They would remember it as the month in which they changed from being very sorrowful to being very joyful, from crying to celebrating.
As days on which the Jews had rest from their haters, and the month which for them was turned from sorrow to joy, and from weeping to a good day: and that they were to keep them as days of feasting and joy, of sending offerings to one another and good things to the poor.
23 So the Jews agreed to do what Mordecai wrote. They agreed to celebrate on those days [every year].
And the Jews gave their word to go on as they had been doing and as Mordecai had given them orders in writing;
24 They would remember how Haman, son of Hammedatha, a descendant of [King] Agag, 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/thrown small marked stones) to choose the day to kill [DOU] them.
Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the hater of all the Jews, had made designs for their destruction, attempting to get a decision by Pur (that is, chance) with a view to putting an end to them and cutting them off;
25 [They would remember] that when Esther told the king about Haman’s plan, the king arranged that the evil plan that Haman had made to kill the Jews would fail, and that he [would be killed] instead of the Jews, and that Haman and that his sons were hanged.
But when the business was put before the king, he gave orders by letters that the evil design which he had made against the Jews was to be turned against himself; and that he and his sons were to be put to death by hanging.
26 [Because the (lot/small marked stone) that Haman threw was called] Pur, the Jews called these days Purim. And, because of everything that ([Mordecai] wrote/was written) in that letter, and because of all that happened to them,
So these days were named Purim, after the name of Pur. And so, because of the words of this letter, and of what they had seen in connection with this business, and what had come 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 those people who became Jews 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.
The Jews made a rule and gave an undertaking, causing their seed and all those who were joined to them to do the same, so that it might be in force for ever, that they would keep those two days, as ordered in the letter, at the fixed time every year;
28 They said that they would remember and celebrate on those two days every year, in each 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.
And that those days were to be kept in memory through every generation and every family, in every division of the kingdom and every town, that there might never be a time when these days of Purim would not be kept among the Jews, or when the memory of them would go from the minds of their seed.
29 Then Mordecai and Queen Esther, who was the daughter of Abihail, wrote a second letter about the Purim feast. 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.
Then Esther the queen, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, sent a second letter giving the force of their authority to the order about the Purim.
30 What they wrote [in the second letter] was, “We wish that all of you will be living peacefully and safely/righteously. We want you and your descendants to celebrate Purim each year on the days that we two established, and to do the things that we two told you to do.” In that letter, Queen Esther and Mordecai also gave them instructions about (fasting/abstaining from eating food) and being sorrowful. Then copies of that letter were sent to all the Jews who were living in the 127 provinces of the empire.
And he sent letters to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven divisions of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with true words of peace,
Giving the force of law to these days of Purim at their fixed times, as they had been ordered by Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen, and in keeping with the rules they had made for themselves and their seed, in connection with their time of going without food and their cry for help.
32 The letter that Esther wrote about the manner in which they should celebrate the Purim feast was also written in an official record.
The order given by Esther gave the force of law to the rules about the Purim; and it was recorded in the book.
