The Book of Esther

And in the twelfth month, that is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's command and his order came to be done, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to take power over them (though it was turned around, so that the Jews ruled, they over the ones hating them),

the Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus to stretch out a hand against those seeking their evil. And no man stood in their presence, for their fear fell on all the peoples.

And all the rulers of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors, and those doing the king' business, were lifting up the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell on them.

For Mordecai [was] great in the king's house and his fame went out into all the provinces, for this man Mordecai was going on and growing greater.

And the Jews struck against all their haters with a stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they desired to those who hated them.

And in Shushan the palace the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

And they killed Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,

and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,

and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,

the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the vexer of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

On that day the number of those who were killed in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.

And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the provinces of the king? And what [is] your petition, and it is given to you? And what further request, and it will be done?

And Esther said, If it pleases the king, let it be given to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day's decree; and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the wooden [gallows].

And the king commanded it to be done so. And the order was given at Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

But the rest of the Jews in the king's provinces gathered and stood for their lives, and a rest from their enemies, and to kill seventy five thousand of their foes But they did not lay their hands on the spoil.

On the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day of the same, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

And the Jews at Shushan assembled on the thirteenth day of it, and on the fourteenth day of it, and to rest on the fifteenth of the same, and to make it a day of feasting and gladness.

On account of this the Jews of the villages who lived in the unwalled towns made the fourteenth day of the month Adar [a day of] gladness and feasting, and a good day, and [a day of] sending portions to one another.

And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, near and far,

to cause to rise among them to act [on] the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly;

as the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day, to make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions to one another, and gifts to the poor.

And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them,

because Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the vexer of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to torment them and to destroy them.

But when [Esther] came to the king, he commanded by the letter, Let this evil plot which he plotted against the Jews return on his own head; and they hanged him and his sons on the wooden [gallows].

On account of this they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. For on account of this all the words of this letter, and what they saw concerning this matter, and what had touched them,

the Jews rose up and took on themselves and on their seed, and on all joining themselves to them, even not to pass, to be keeping those two days according to their writing, and according to their time every year;

and [that] these days [should be] remembered and acted upon in every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and [that] these days of Purim should not pass from among the Jews, and their memory not perish from their seed.

And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.

And he sent the letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus words of peace and truth,

in order to confirm these days of Purim in their set times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had ordered them, and as they had decreed for themselves, and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and of their cry.

And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim. And it was written in the book.