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.
Therefore, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which as we have said before is called Adar, when all the Jews were prepared to be executed and their enemies were greedy for their blood, the situation turned around, and the Jews began to have the upper hand and to vindicate themselves of their adversaries.
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].
And they gathered together throughout each city, and town, and place, so as to extend their hands against their enemies and their persecutors. And no one dared to resist them, because their great power had pierced 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.
For even the judges of the provinces, and the rulers, and the procurators, and everyone of dignity, who presided over every place and work, extolled the Jews for fear of Mordecai.
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 they knew him to be the leader of the palace and to have much power. Likewise, the fame of his name increased daily and flew everywhere through word of mouth.
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.
And so the Jews struck their enemies like a great plague and killed them, repaying according to what they had prepared to do to them,
6 [Just] in Susa alone, the capital city, they killed 500 people.
so much so that even in Susa they executed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Haman the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, and their names are these:
7 Among those whom they killed were the ten sons of Haman. [Their names were] Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha
8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha.
and Parmashta, and Arisai, and 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.
When they had slain them, they were unwilling to touch the spoils of their belongings.
11 [At the end of] that day someone reported to the king the number of people whom the Jews killed in Susa.
And immediately the number of those who had been killed in Susa was reported 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.”
He said to the queen, “In the city of Susa, the Jews have executed five hundred men, and also the ten sons of Haman. How many executions do you think that they have carried out in all the provinces? What more do you ask, and what do you wish, so that I may order it to 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.”
And she answered, “If it pleases the king, may power be granted to the Jews, so as to do tomorrow in Susa just as they have done today, and that the ten sons of Haman may be hung up 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.
And the king instructed that it should be so done. And immediately the edict was hung up in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hung up.
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.
On the fourteenth day of the month Adar, the Jews gathered themselves together, and they executed in Susa three hundred men, but they did not seize their belongings from them.
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.
Moreover, throughout all the provinces which were subject to the king’s dominion, the Jews made a stand for their lives, and they executed their enemies and their persecutors, so much so that the number of those who were killed amounted to seventy-five thousand, and yet no one touched any of their belongings.
17 That occurred on March 7th, and on the following day they rested and celebrated.
Now the thirteenth day of the month Adar was the first day with all of the executions, and on the fourteenth day they ceased the killing. This day they established to be sacred, so that in all times hereafter they would be free for feasting, joyfulness, and celebration.
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, as for those who were carrying out the killings in the city of Susa, they turned to killing on the thirteenth and fourteenth day of the same month. But on the fifteenth day they ceased to attack. And for that reason they established that day as sacred, with feasting and with gladness.
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.
But in truth, those Jews who were staying in unwalled towns and villages, appointed the fourteenth day of the month Adar for celebration and gladness, so as to rejoice on that day and send one another portions of their feasts and their meals.
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 so Mordecai wrote down all these things and sent them, composed in letters, to the Jews who were staying in all the king’s provinces, as much to those in nearby places as to those far away,
21 He told them that every year they should celebrate on the 8th and 9th of March,
so that they would accept the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month Adar for holy days, and always, at the return of the year, would celebrate them with sacred esteem.
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.
For on those days, the Jews vindicated themselves of their enemies, and their mourning and sorrow were turned into mirth and joy, so that these would be days of feasting and gladness, in which they would send one another portions of their feasts, and would grant gifts 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 accepted as a solemn ritual all the things which they had begun to do at that time, which Mordecai had commanded with letters to be done.
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.
For Haman, the son of Hammedatha of Agag lineage, the enemy and adversary of the Jews, had devised evil against them, to kill them and to destroy them. And he had cast Pur, which in our language means the lot.
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.
And after this, Esther had entered before the king, begging him that his efforts might be made ineffective by the king’s letters, and that the evil he intended against the Jews might return upon his own head. Finally, both he and his sons were fastened to a cross.
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,
And so, from that time, these days are called Purim, that is, of the lots, because Pur, that is, the lot, was cast into the urn. And all things that had been carried out are contained in the volume of this epistle, that is, of this book.
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.
And whatever they suffered, and whatever was altered afterwards, the Jews received for themselves and their offspring and for all who were willing to be joined to their religion, so that none would be permitted to transgress the solemnity of these two days, to which the writing testifies, and which certain times require, as the years continually succeed one another.
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.
These are the days which no one ever will erase into oblivion, and which every province in the whole world, throughout each generation, shall celebrate. Neither is there any city wherein the days of Purim, that is, of lots, may not be observed by the Jews, and by their posterity, which has been obligated to these ceremonies.
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.
And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, also wrote a second letter, so that with all zealousness this day would be confirmed as customary for future generations.
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 they sent to all the Jews, who had been stirred up in the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of king Artaxerxes, that they should have peace and receive truth,
and observe the days of lots, and celebrate them with joy at their proper time, just as Mordecai and Esther had established. And they accepted these to be observed by themselves and by their offspring: fasting, and crying out, and the days of lots,
32 The letter that Esther wrote about the manner in which they should celebrate the Purim feast was also written in an official record.
and all things which are contained in the history of this book, which is called Esther.
