Chapter 9
1 Now in the twelfth month , which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month , when the king ’s commandment and his decree came near to be put in execution , on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them , ( but it turned out that the opposite happened , that the Jews conquered those who hated them ),
2 the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them . No one could withstand them , because the fear of them had fallen on all the people .
3 All the princes of the provinces , the local governors , the governors , and those who did the king ’s business helped the Jews , because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them .
4 For Mordecai was great in the king ’s house , and his fame went out throughout all the provinces , for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater .
5 The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword , and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them .
6 In the citadel of Susa , the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.
7 They killed Parshandatha , Dalphon , Aspatha,
8 Poratha , Adalia, Aridatha,
9 Parmashta , Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha ,
10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha , the Jews ’ enemy , but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
11 On that day , the number of those who were slain in the citadel of Susa was brought before the king .
12 The king said to Esther the queen , " The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Susa , including the ten sons of Haman ; what then have they done in the rest of the king ’s provinces ! Now what is your petition ? It shall be granted you . What is your further request ? It shall be done ."
13 Then Esther said, " If it pleases the king , let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to today ’s decree , and let Haman ’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows ."
14 The king commanded this to be done . A decree was given out in Susa ; and they hanged Haman ’s ten sons .
15 The Jews who were in Susa gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Susa ; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
16 The other Jews who were in the king ’s provinces gathered themselves together , defended their lives , had rest from their enemies , and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them ; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.
17 This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness .
18 But the Jews who were in Susa assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested , and made it a day of feasting and gladness .
19 Therefore the Jews of the villages , who live in the unwalled towns , make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting , a holiday , and a day of sending presents of food to one another .
20 Mordecai wrote these things , and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far ,
21 to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly ,
22 as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness , and from mourning into a holiday ; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness , and of sending presents of food to one another , and gifts to the needy.
23 The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun , as Mordecai had written to them ,
24 because Haman the son of Hammedatha , the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews , had plotted against the Jews to destroy them , and had cast " Pur ", that is the lot , to consume them and to destroy them ;
25 but when this became known to the king , he commanded by letters that his wicked plan , which he had planned against the Jews , should return on his own head , and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows .
26 Therefore they called these days " Purim ", from the word " Pur ." Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter , and that which had come to them ,
27 the Jews established and imposed on themselves , on their descendants , and on all those who joined themselves to them , so that it should not fail that they would keep these two days according to what was written and according to its appointed time every year ;
28 and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation , every family , every province , and every city ; and that these days of Purim should not fail from amongst the Jews , nor their memory perish from their offspring .
29 Then Esther the queen , the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim .
30 He sent letters to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus with words of peace and truth,
31 to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times , as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed , and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants in the matter of the fastings and their mourning.
32 The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim ; and it was written in the book .