Esther

¹Now in the twelfth month, on the thirteenth day of the month, which is Adar, the letters written by the king arrived. ²In that day, the adversaries of the Jews perished; for no one resisted, through fear of them. ³For the chiefs of the local governors, and the princes and the royal scribes, honored the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai was upon them. ⁴For the order of the king was in force, that he should be celebrated in all the kingdom. ⁶In the city Susa the Jews killed five hundred men, ⁷including Pharsannes, Delphon, Phasga, ⁸Pharadatha, Barea, Sarbaca, ⁹Marmasima, Ruphaeus, Arsaeus, and Zabuthaeus, ¹⁰the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha the Bugaean, the enemy of the Jews; and they plundered their property on the same day. ¹¹The number of those who perished in Susa was reported to the king. ¹²Then the king said to Esther, “The Jews have slain five hundred men in the city Susa. What do you think they have done in the rest of the country? What more do you ask, that it may be done for you?” ¹³Esther said to the king, “Let it be granted to the Jews to do the same to them tomorrow. Also, hang the bodies of the ten sons of Haman.” ¹⁴He permitted it to be done; and he gave up to the Jews of the city the bodies of the sons of Haman to hang. ¹⁵The Jews assembled in Susa on the fourteenth day of Adar and killed three hundred men, but plundered no property. ¹⁶The 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. ¹⁷They rested on the fourteenth of the same month, and kept it as a day of rest with joy and gladness. ¹⁸The Jews in the city of Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day and rested; and they also observed the fifteenth with joy and gladness. ¹⁹On this account then, the Jews dispersed in every foreign land keep the fourteenth of Adar as a holy day with joy, each sending gifts of food to his neighbor.

²⁰Mordecai wrote these things in a book and sent them to the Jews, as many as were in the kingdom of Ahasuerus, both those who were near and those who were far away, ²¹to establish these as joyful days and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar; ²²for on these days the Jews obtained rest from their enemies; and in that month, which was Adar, in which a change was made for them from mourning to joy, and from sorrow to a holiday, to spend the whole of it in good days of feasting and gladness, sending portions to their friends and to the poor. ²³And the Jews consented to this as Mordecai wrote to them, ²⁴showing how Haman the son of Hammedatha the Macedonian fought against them, how he made a decree and cast lots to destroy them utterly; ²⁵also how he went in to the king, telling him to hang Mordecai; but all the calamities he tried to bring upon the Jews came upon himself, and he was hanged, along with his children. ²⁶Therefore these days were called Purim, because of the lots (for in their language they are called Purim) because of the words of this letter, and because of all they suffered on this account, and all that happened to them. ²⁷Mordecai established it, and the Jews took upon themselves, upon their offspring, and upon those who 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, city, family, and province. ²⁸These days of Purim shall be kept forever, and their memorial shall not fail in any generation. ²⁹Queen Esther the daughter of Aminadab and Mordecai the Jew wrote all that they had done, and gave the confirmation of the letter about Purim. ³¹Mordecai and Esther the queen established this decision on their own, pledging their own well-being to their plan. ³²And Esther established it by a command forever, and it was written for a memorial.