Esther 9

9 ¹ Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on its thirteenth day, the king's command and decree were to be carried out. On the very day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, it was turned around: the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them. ² The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to attack those who sought to harm them, and no one could stand against them, for the fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. ³ And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who managed the king's affairs supported the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them. ⁴ For Mordecai had become powerful in the king's household, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces, for Mordecai himself grew more and more powerful. ⁵ So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying, and they did as they pleased to those who hated them. ⁶ In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. ⁷ They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, ⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, ⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, ¹⁰ the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they took no plunder.

¹¹ That same day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king. ¹² The king said to Queen Esther, "In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman. What 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 further request? It will be done."

¹³ Esther replied, "If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Susa be allowed to act tomorrow also according to this day's decree, and let the ten sons of Haman be hung on poles."

¹⁴ So the king commanded that this be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they hung the ten sons of Haman. ¹⁵ The Jews in Susa gathered again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men there, but they took no plunder.

¹⁶ The rest of the Jews in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives. They gained relief from their enemies and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but they took no plunder. ¹⁷ This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸ But the Jews in Susa had gathered on the thirteenth and the fourteenth, so they rested on the fifteenth and made it their day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹ This is why the Jews who live in the rural towns and villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday for sending gifts of food to one another.

The Feast of Purim Established

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ to require them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year ²² as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning to celebration. He told them to keep them as days of feasting and gladness, sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. ²³ So the Jews adopted as a custom what they had begun to do, just as Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴ For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy them and had cast the pur—that is, the lot—to crush and destroy them. ²⁵ But when it came before the king, he ordered by letter that the wicked scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should fall back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hung on the poles.

²⁶ Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word pur. Because of everything written in this letter, and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews bound themselves, their children, and all who joined them to a commitment that they would never fail to observe these two days at the appointed time each year, just as it was written. ²⁸ These days are to be remembered and kept in every generation, by every family, in every province, and in every city; and these days of Purim should never cease to be observed among the Jews, nor should their memory ever fade among their children.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, together with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. ³⁰ And letters were sent to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus—words of peace and truth ³¹ —to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and as they had established for themselves and their children, with their times of fasting and mourning. ³² Esther's command confirmed these regulations about Purim, and it was written down in the record.