Esther

On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower [1] them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them.

The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes to defend themselves against those seeking their harm. No one could stand against them, for fear of the Jews had fallen on all the people.

All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s administrators helped the Jews, because they were in awe of Mordecai.

Mordecai was now a great power in the royal palace, and his fame spread through all the provinces as he became more and more influential.

The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and doing as they pleased to those who hated them.

In the fortress of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha,

the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on any of the plunder.

The number of those killed in the fortress of Susa was reported to the king that same day.

The king said to Queen Esther, "The Jews have destroyed five hundred men and Haman’s ten sons in Susa alone. What must they have done in the rest of the royal provinces? Now what is your further petition? It shall be granted. What is your next request? It shall be done."

"If it pleases the king," Esther replied, "let the Jews in Susa be allowed to do tomorrow what they did today, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows."

So the king commanded it to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.

The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred more men there, but again they did not touch the plunder.

Meanwhile, the other Jews in the royal provinces also assembled to protect their lives and gain relief from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they did not touch the plunder.

This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested, making it a day of feasting and joy.

The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, so they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and joy.

This is why the Jews in the villages and unwalled towns celebrate the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a holiday for sending gifts of food to one another.

Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far.

He urged them to celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar,

as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a holiday. He commanded them to observe these as days of feasting and joy, of sending food to each other and gifts to the poor.

So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, following the instructions Mordecai had written to them.

For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised a plot to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to ruin and annihilate them.

But when the king learned of the plot through Esther, he gave written orders that the evil plan Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Therefore these days were called Purim [1], from the word pur. Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them,

the Jews established the custom that they and their descendants and all who joined them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the appointed time.

These days were to be remembered and celebrated by every family in every generation, in every province and in every city. The days of Purim were never to cease being celebrated by the Jews, and their memory was never to fade from their descendants.

Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim.

And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of Xerxes’ kingdom, wishing them peace and security.

These letters established the days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had decreed, and just as the people had established for themselves and their descendants as times of fasting and lamentation.

Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations for Purim, and it was all recorded in the official book.